How does this generally work with romantic relationships? Do people usually only start relationships if they are of the same age?
Why Koreans ask what year you were born
211–220 of 377 posts
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#212Is it more or less beneficial to birth a Korean child on December 31 so they can be two years in Korean Age ASAP? Thinking about their career prospects, certain legal requirements etc. if older is better, it seems like you’d want to hit that December 31st birth date.
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting, as a German (which also has a similar system), I am the complete opposite, I find it super irritating when people address me by my last name. And the worst part is having to figure out how to address others, especially people you've known for a while but aren't really close to, e.g. say long-time neighbors I rarely meet. Luckily, in the IT industry, it's common to just use first names with everybody.
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…
I have a very common first name (Dave) and a very uncommon last name (Pifke, pronounced PIF-key). The majority of my close friends call me by my last name, since there are several other Daves and Davids in our friend group.
My brother's friends do likewise, since his first name is Mike and he runs with a bunch of other Mikes and Michaels.
There's a naming collision when my brother and I hang out together, but since we live in different states, the system usually works.
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#214> 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…
I never truly understood linguistic formality until I was teaching a class and one of the students addressed me as “Josh”. My full name is “Joshua” and students virtually always used to call me that, but that semester, the computer system put my name as “Josh” and it felt weirdly disrespectful when a student called me that even though I know none was intended.
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#215In the USA as a low-level employee address the company CEO as "heya phil, hows it going?". Then address your friend with "Hello Mr. Smith". In most cases you won't get a positive reaction out of either one of those (yes exceptions exist). How about this: address your husband/wife as "Mr/Mrs ", especially after a fight. Similarly when the kids have been doing something or you are frustrated with your partner say " you…
Gotta love when you're in a 2,000 person public company, and you can still "heya Phil" despite not being a personal friend at all, and he even prefers it
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#216A friend (not Korean) said on his 29th birthday that he's starting his 30th year of life. It was an interesting perspective, because in general we celebrate our nth birthday after completing n years of life.
> in general we celebrate our nth birthday after completing n years of life. Well it's literally like you say: your friend will "celebrate his 30th birthday after completing 30 years of life". If the 30th birthday happens after 30 years of life, then the 30th year of life happens before the 30th birthday.
Well my day of birth isn't my 1st birthday ... it is somewhat messed up.
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#217In the USA as a low-level employee address the company CEO as "heya phil, hows it going?". Then address your friend with "Hello Mr. Smith". In most cases you won't get a positive reaction out of either one of those (yes exceptions exist). How about this: address your husband/wife as "Mr/Mrs ", especially after a fight. Similarly when the kids have been doing something or you are frustrated with your partner say " you…
I actually think "heya phil" is more the norm than not. Certainly in tech that's the case. For example, we address the CEO of the company I work at (small but public) by her first name. From tuning into investor calls from my days in finance it's even common at non-tech companies.
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#218In the USA as a low-level employee address the company CEO as "heya phil, hows it going?". Then address your friend with "Hello Mr. Smith". In most cases you won't get a positive reaction out of either one of those (yes exceptions exist). How about this: address your husband/wife as "Mr/Mrs ", especially after a fight. Similarly when the kids have been doing something or you are frustrated with your partner say " you…
I actually think "heya phil" is more the norm than not. Certainly in tech that's the case. For example, we address the CEO of the company I work at (small but public) by her first name. From tuning into investor calls from my days in finance it's even common at non-tech companies.
Small tech firms are notorious outliers when it comes to this though
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#219Earlier 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…
I have a very common first name (Dave) and a very uncommon last name (Pifke, pronounced PIF-key). The majority of my close friends call me by my last name, since there are several other Daves and Davids in our friend group. My brother's friends do likewise, since his first name is Mike and he runs with a bunch of other Mikes and Michaels. There's a naming collision when my brother and I hang out together, but since w…
There's always first initial partial last. DPif and MPif
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#220In the USA as a low-level employee address the company CEO as "heya phil, hows it going?". Then address your friend with "Hello Mr. Smith". In most cases you won't get a positive reaction out of either one of those (yes exceptions exist). How about this: address your husband/wife as "Mr/Mrs ", especially after a fight. Similarly when the kids have been doing something or you are frustrated with your partner say " you…
Unless you work for Conan O'Brien.
A fan saw him and briefly chatted, then Conan asked if he wanted a photo.
The man said "sure, Mr. O'Brien," to which Conan replied, "please, call me sir."