새해 복 많이 받으세요! (belatedly)
Happy Korean New Year! Okay, so the Korean New Year was a week ago on the 18th. But you can still wish people a happy new year within the first month of that new year, right? Well, I will! As some of you may notice, the Korean New Year falls on the same day as the Chinese New Year. Coincidence? No. The Koreans just borrowed the Chinese calendar a looong time ago and still celebrate certain holidays based on that calendar. But the year is different. The Korean year is 4340, as far as I know. I'm not sure what the Chinese year is...
What did I do for the Korean New Year? Not much... Sat at home, knitted, and had ddeokkuk (I just hate transcribing Korean... There is no efficient way to represent Korean sounds...). Ddeokkuk is the traditional New Year's meal. It's a soup made with bits of beef, rice cake (not the crispy stuff you eat when you are on a diet!), some green onion, and an egg. Well, you can add some other stuff if you want, like dumplings. But the essential ingredient is the rice cake (that's the name of the soup: ddeok = rice cake, guk = soup). Anyway, it was yummy. Gotta love comfort food!
But, since the Korean New Year was last week, I'm now officially 29! Fun, eh? What does the Korean New Year have to do with my age? And since my birthday isn't until August, I'm probably confusing a lot of you, right? ^^ One's Korean age is counted differently than one's Western age. In practical calculations, your Korean age is the age you will turn that year plus one. Make sense? No? So, my Western age is 27. This year, I will turn 28. So, my Korean age is the age I will turn (28) plus one, which makes me 29. Another thing you may notice is that I "turned" 29 on New Year and not on my birthday, another thing that is different about Korean ages: everyone becomes a year older at New Year's and not on their birthday. For Westerners, this is very strange, but in Korea, it serves a practical purpose. First, a quick Korean lesson.
In Korea, hierarchy is very important. It determines not only how you act toward other people, but also how you speak to them. The endings of your words (especially of verbs) changes based on your relationship to the person you're speaking to. Now, I know all of you are going, "Oh, so it's like tu/vous in French or du/Sie in German." No, it is nothing like that! The difference is that those forms in French or German are only relevant when you address your conversation partner directly. But if you are talking about Mr. John Doe, then how you talk about him does not change whether you are talking to friends, your boss, or to your child. In Korean, however, it does. So, an example. The following sentence in French stays the same no matter who you speak to.
Jean parle français. 'Jean speaks French.'
The Korean equivalents, however, depend on who you are talking to.
Jyon-eun hangukmal-eul ha-n-da.
Jyon-eun hangukmal-eul hae.
Jyon-eun hangukmal-eul hae-yo.
Jyon-eun hangukmal-eul ha-mnida.
All of these mean 'John speaks Korean.' However, the first sentence you can only say to someone younger than you (like children). The second, you can only use with close friends or people younger than you. The third is the general polite form--you can use it for strangers or for people who are older than you. The last one is a formal polite form that you use to talk to your boss or anyone else you should show respect to. This gives you an idea of how complicated the situation is and how it is different from the familiar French or German situation.
How does this relate to age? Well, the age of the person you are talking to determines which endings you should use. So, when introduced to Koreans, one of the first questions you get asked is how old you are. Because of the way Koreans count age, everyone who is the same age was born in the same year. If you meet someone who is the same age (in other words, born in the same year), then the next question is usually what month. This is very different from the West, where you generally don't ask how old someone is until you've gotten to know them. But in Korea, it determines your relationship to that person.
A cultural tidbit instead of a knitbit. Hope you enjoyed it!
What did I do for the Korean New Year? Not much... Sat at home, knitted, and had ddeokkuk (I just hate transcribing Korean... There is no efficient way to represent Korean sounds...). Ddeokkuk is the traditional New Year's meal. It's a soup made with bits of beef, rice cake (not the crispy stuff you eat when you are on a diet!), some green onion, and an egg. Well, you can add some other stuff if you want, like dumplings. But the essential ingredient is the rice cake (that's the name of the soup: ddeok = rice cake, guk = soup). Anyway, it was yummy. Gotta love comfort food!
But, since the Korean New Year was last week, I'm now officially 29! Fun, eh? What does the Korean New Year have to do with my age? And since my birthday isn't until August, I'm probably confusing a lot of you, right? ^^ One's Korean age is counted differently than one's Western age. In practical calculations, your Korean age is the age you will turn that year plus one. Make sense? No? So, my Western age is 27. This year, I will turn 28. So, my Korean age is the age I will turn (28) plus one, which makes me 29. Another thing you may notice is that I "turned" 29 on New Year and not on my birthday, another thing that is different about Korean ages: everyone becomes a year older at New Year's and not on their birthday. For Westerners, this is very strange, but in Korea, it serves a practical purpose. First, a quick Korean lesson.
In Korea, hierarchy is very important. It determines not only how you act toward other people, but also how you speak to them. The endings of your words (especially of verbs) changes based on your relationship to the person you're speaking to. Now, I know all of you are going, "Oh, so it's like tu/vous in French or du/Sie in German." No, it is nothing like that! The difference is that those forms in French or German are only relevant when you address your conversation partner directly. But if you are talking about Mr. John Doe, then how you talk about him does not change whether you are talking to friends, your boss, or to your child. In Korean, however, it does. So, an example. The following sentence in French stays the same no matter who you speak to.
Jean parle français. 'Jean speaks French.'
The Korean equivalents, however, depend on who you are talking to.
Jyon-eun hangukmal-eul ha-n-da.
Jyon-eun hangukmal-eul hae.
Jyon-eun hangukmal-eul hae-yo.
Jyon-eun hangukmal-eul ha-mnida.
All of these mean 'John speaks Korean.' However, the first sentence you can only say to someone younger than you (like children). The second, you can only use with close friends or people younger than you. The third is the general polite form--you can use it for strangers or for people who are older than you. The last one is a formal polite form that you use to talk to your boss or anyone else you should show respect to. This gives you an idea of how complicated the situation is and how it is different from the familiar French or German situation.
How does this relate to age? Well, the age of the person you are talking to determines which endings you should use. So, when introduced to Koreans, one of the first questions you get asked is how old you are. Because of the way Koreans count age, everyone who is the same age was born in the same year. If you meet someone who is the same age (in other words, born in the same year), then the next question is usually what month. This is very different from the West, where you generally don't ask how old someone is until you've gotten to know them. But in Korea, it determines your relationship to that person.
A cultural tidbit instead of a knitbit. Hope you enjoyed it!
posted by gearncniht at 8:57 AM
4 Comments:
i only know about indo-european languages, so this was very interesting to read about. happy new year!
cool. but do Koreans still celebrate the actual birthday? and also, if you are a baby and you are born the day before the new year, the next day you'll be 2? or 1? (confusing to me!)
Very interesting cultural lesson - I work with a lot of Koreans, but none has ever been forthcoming with their traditions or culture, thank you!
funnily enough, if you are born the day before the new year, then you are indeed two years old the next day! and koreans to celebrate birthdays, but that is a recent development from the west (read, the us). but koreans still count their age the korean way. for official documents, though, you write in your "western" age, which is counted based on your birthday and all that... fun, eh? glad you guys enjoyed the cultural tidbit!
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