This exists in all Uralic-Altaic languages; Turkish, Mongolian, Korean, Japanese, Finnish, Hungarian and Tungus. It is build in the language/culure.
Why Koreans ask what year you were born
341–350 of 377 posts
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#342'Using “you” in Korean is quite interesting since the direct translation 너 / neo is often too rude.' That makes me wonder how the preferred third person pronoun movement works in Korea...
It doesn't really exist because Korean pronouns don't have any gender attached to them.
That's the best solution, of course. Almost never does it clarify...
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#343Earlier 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…
Sorry -- "trap-loving"?
A genre of music.
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#344In 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…
According to a popular quote, "Languages differ essentially in what they must convey, not in what they may convey." You can convey relative social position in English, if you want to. You don't have to, if you don't want to. Korean is different. You have to convey relative social position in basically every sentence because without that you can't finish your main verb. In English, you can't offend a reasonable person…
> just like English speakers are used to having to know and specify the gender of everyone around them, including cats and dogs
Welp, you have no idea. In German and in Slavic languages you'd have to know and specify the gender of every single noun. Is a coat the same gender as a beer, or different? Is orange the same gender as capitalism? Every. Single. Noun.
And they have three genders, obviously.
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#345I find it surprising actually how much these seniority rules are well-defined in many cultures, but in Brazil there is strong variation - even in the same geography. For example, a colleague who is learning Brazilian Portuguese was under the impression that "você" and "tu" were the equivalent of "vous/tu" or "Sie/du". In reality, they are just different regional ways of saying the informal you. In Brazilian Portugues…
Funnily enough, você itself was once more formal, having been a contraction of "vossa mercê."
I'm surprised to hear that your family did not use formal language even in prayer. May I ask what religion(s) you grew up practicing? Catholic prayers often use antiquated, formal language (like "vós"). I don't know enough about Candomblé, but at least Nagô Candomblé is pretty highly formalized in the sense that Yorùbá is the liturgical language.
The "Doutor/Doutora" thing bothers me. I see it all the time with my in-laws empregadas, who use it to refer to my father-in-law (who's an MD) and my mother-in-law (who isn't). It feels weirdly obsequious in that context, even though there's a very clear power and class hierarchy.
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#346Earlier quoted context omitted.
I spent almost 10 years trying to avoid calling my mother and father in law by their first names. In my home country's language there are words for "mother in law" and "father in law" you can use in a second person context, but English doesn't have any. My wife has the opposite problem. She's gotten stuck calling my parents "Mr. XYZ" and "Mrs. XYZ."
My inlaws are addressed "mom" and "dad" - is that weird?
[deleted]
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#347Earlier quoted context omitted.
I spent almost 10 years trying to avoid calling my mother and father in law by their first names. In my home country's language there are words for "mother in law" and "father in law" you can use in a second person context, but English doesn't have any. My wife has the opposite problem. She's gotten stuck calling my parents "Mr. XYZ" and "Mrs. XYZ."
My inlaws are addressed "mom" and "dad" - is that weird?
It’s somehow both too familiar and overly deferential. Vis-a-vis my wife’s parents, I’m not a child, but an adult, though of less seniority.
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#348Earlier quoted context omitted.
As an obvious foreigner, you are 100% exempt from all this. In fact, if you get it right, it'll make them feel weird and they'll try to avoid that. I read a story once about someone who went to McDonalds in Japanese, and the clerk flipped the menu to the English side. The person flipped it back over, and the clerk flipped it to English again! They simply couldn't believe the foreigner could read it. And I've read sto…
> As an obvious foreigner, you are 100% exempt from all this. In fact, if you get it right, it'll make them feel weird and they'll try to avoid that. Are you sure? In Korea, everyone who seriously cares about this stuff absolutely prefer it if you get all of it right. Of course, plenty of people (probably most under 30) secretly hate it and are therefore thankful if you don't get it right as it gives them a semi-out…
Japan and South Korea are different countries.
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#349> 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…
In Korean, you can never address someone older by their first name. Yes not even your blood brother or sister.
Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born
#350Earlier quoted context omitted.
> As an obvious foreigner, you are 100% exempt from all this. In fact, if you get it right, it'll make them feel weird and they'll try to avoid that. Are you sure? In Korea, everyone who seriously cares about this stuff absolutely prefer it if you get all of it right. Of course, plenty of people (probably most under 30) secretly hate it and are therefore thankful if you don't get it right as it gives them a semi-out…
Japan and South Korea are different countries.
They are, but they have in common that a huge portion of things written about them online in English - especially about these cultural subjects - are very outdated or otherwise unrepresentative. Like I said, most of that comment is written all the time about SK too, and they're effectively untrue. There would need to be strong evidence that such reports about Japan are any different.