fishpatrol | A list again.

1. Damn those bright, distracting, pink plastic things
The bruise on the inside of my thigh is still there from last week. I got it from walking straight into one of these bike posts because I was too busy staring up at a pink plastic flamingo whose head was sticking over the balcony of an apartment building to look where I was going. =___=;;

2. I'll appreciate this when I'm forty
This morning (before 8am on a Saturday! D:), my parents dragged me out of bed to go to a conservation area park thingie. I was snoozing in the backseat with my glasses off and my headphones on, and apparently I looked young enough to pass for a child because we were only charged for two adults and a child ticket at the entrance. I'm hoping "child" equals "16 and under" and not the usual "12 and under". LOL;;;

3. My mommy is lol♥
My mom and I were sitting on a park bench waiting for my dad to finish fishing and I was making her listen to SJ-M songs. I told her about Henry being Chinese-Canadian and a dancing violin player, and my mom was like, "You play the violin -- you can put your hair under a hat and join them."* ;;; And later I revealed my nefarious plans to convince her to like the kind of music I like so that she would willing buy CDs and other merchandise for me when she goes to China, and I told her about the limited edition SJ-M CD which seems to be only purchasable in China. She was like, "Why don't you just have it shipped to your aunt and when your dad goes to China, he can pick it up for you. Or you can even ship it to my friend's place." After her initial, "Why are you still chasing boybands at your age?" (her exact words were, "你这么大还追星啊?"), she's been surprisingly nice about my crazy obsessions (including things like, "You want to fly all the way to LA for a concert? Okay, let me call your uncle and see if you can stay at his place.") XD<3

*-She must be the fourth or fifth person now to imply that I look like a guy (other people who have said so directly include my best friend and my ex-boyfriend...in a teasing manner, of course ;)). Kind of makes me want to dress up like a guy for a day and see if I can manage to successfully pass as one, heh. XD

4. Tenipuri songs are educational, okay
We saw an plane with a long streaming white tail of clouds. I pointed up and said, "That's called a contrail."
My head has been saturated with useless words lately because I've been studying for the GREs.

5. There are no such things as stupid questions, right?
Okay, so in Korean shows you often hear people refer to their friends by their names plus an "yi/ie" -- e.g. Sungminnie, Kibummie, Jaejoongie. Is the "ie" a form of endearment, indicating a close relationship, or is it actually the subject particle "이"? I can't recall if I've ever heard one person call another [insert name]-ie -- usually it's [insert name]-ah/yah ("ah" or "yah" depending on whether the ending letter is a consonant or a vowel, I assume). I could be totally off the mark. Idk. XD

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Is there a cut-off of sorts for what 'younger' is?

In general, if you're born in the same year as your friend you can drop the "hyung/oppa/unnie/nuna" honorifics, which is why Jaejoong and Yunho are peers. And technically Yoochun and Junsu are their peers as well so I'm not sure why they consider otherwise? I'm thinking it could be either because:

1) Jaejoong and Yunho entered school a year earlier - in that case, grade level overrides actual age, so anyone born in 1986 but who's a grade below them would have to call them hyung.
2) Jaejoong and Yunho count their age by the lunar calendar. If their birthdays fall before the Chinese New Year, they're technically born in the previous year compared to Yoochun and Junsu. This is sort of age-counting is not common but maybe DBSK wanted to be super-traditional or something...

BTW if you ever find out the real reason, do let me know as I'm curious too. ;)

what's the terminology for when a couple gets married then? Would a wife still call her husband oppa?

Wives can still call their husbands "oppa" (if the husband is older, of course) but that's more common among young newlyweds. When couples get into their 30s, "oppa" becomes too awkward/childish-sounding, so they usually call each other 여보* ("yeo-boh" means "dear" but more neutral than affectionate) or 자기야* ("ja-gi-yah" means "honey" or "darling") among a bunch of other nicknames.

*used only to directly address your spouse; one cannot say "Jaejoong is my 여보".

1) Jaejoong and Yunho entered school a year earlier - in that case, grade level overrides actual age, so anyone born in 1986 but who's a grade below them would have to call them hyung.

I recall someone using the same rationale to explain why Donghae and Eunhyuk call Sungmin "hyung" while Donghae doesn't call Eunhyuk "hyung" even though they are all born in the same year. I suppose it makes sense...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.
With all this attention on age, do Koreans tend to remember their friends' birthdays better? ;D

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*~*~

Between, say, coworkers in their thirties and forties, do they still use the same terms when addressing each other (assuming the difference is only in age and not positions)? The speech system seems to be pretty gendered, given the difference between the use of hyung/nuna versus oppa/unnie -- are there other distinct differences between men and women's speech like there is in Japanese ("watashi" vs "boku" and all that)?

Lolll Well, on the bright side, if you turn out to be older than the other person, they have to defer to you; if you turn out to be younger, you can gloat (on the inside ;)) that, hey, even if you have to call them oppa/unnie, at least you're still younger! Win-win :Db

Among co-workers it's more formal, so people more or less call each other _____-sshi regardless of age and gender. The honorific changes as you go further up the chain of command, usually [title]-nim.

are there other distinct differences between men and women's speech like there is in Japanese

Hmmm... not really. At least not that I can think of. ^^; I do notice, though, that men definitely have freer reign to address women more casually and drop the honorific quicker, whereas women tend to be consistently polite toward men. Sexism rears its ugly head yet again. xP

if you turn out to be older than the other person, they have to defer to you; if you turn out to be younger, you can gloat (on the inside ;))

XDDD I LIKE YOUR WAY OF THINKING.

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