but the system must be confusing since you have to figure out the year, and sometimes the month, of all of your friends and acquaintances in order to determine whether an honorific is needed.
Oh man, Koreans sure love overly convoluted rituals and social systems. ;P But I've noticed the younger Korean generation isn't as strict about honorifics. I know some people who don't mind it at all when their younger friends (by one year) drop honorifics (though any age difference over a year is still a given). And there are others who demand to be called hyung/oppa/unnie/nuna if they're a day older than you. It really depends on the person - the safest approach is to address them as the elder even if they're only slightly older than you, and then drop the honorific once they make it clear that it's acceptable.
With all this attention on age, do Koreans tend to remember their friends' birthdays better? ;D
Haha, yes, actually! Whenever two people have a conversation for first time, I swear birth years & months are ALWAYS mentioned within the first 10 seconds. I guess that's necessary to establish seniority and all that but it gets annoying.....especially as one gets older and more reluctant to publicly announce one's birth year... *sheds an emo tear*~*~
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Date: 2008-07-12 05:58 am (UTC)Oh man, Koreans sure love overly convoluted rituals and social systems. ;P But I've noticed the younger Korean generation isn't as strict about honorifics. I know some people who don't mind it at all when their younger friends (by one year) drop honorifics (though any age difference over a year is still a given). And there are others who demand to be called hyung/oppa/unnie/nuna if they're a day older than you. It really depends on the person - the safest approach is to address them as the elder even if they're only slightly older than you, and then drop the honorific once they make it clear that it's acceptable.
With all this attention on age, do Koreans tend to remember their friends' birthdays better? ;D
Haha, yes, actually! Whenever two people have a conversation for first time, I swear birth years & months are ALWAYS mentioned within the first 10 seconds. I guess that's necessary to establish seniority and all that but it gets annoying.....especially as one gets older and more reluctant to publicly announce one's birth year... *sheds an emo tear*~*~