Monday, July 15, 2013

Word of the Day: Birthdays

Speaking of birthdays, Henry taught us two interesting facts about how Koreans calculate age.*

First, Koreans are the age "one" on the day of their birth. I know this is common in many other parts of the world, but here in the US, we start at zero and it takes a year before we turn one.

Secondly, Koreans calculate age by the year, rather than the date. This means that Korens officially "turn" the next year older on the first day of the year, even though their specific birthday probably won't be for a number of months. Come the beginning of the year, everyone's age increases on the same day.

This means that for me, my Korean age can be up to 2 years higher than my North American age. Weird.

But, what is kind of nice, is that I can compare the Korean age of my favorite stars with my own North American age and it makes me feel like less of a pedo-noona.

Hmmm, Park Ji Bin... so your Korean age is 19? Nope it's still creepy.


*All facts regarding age come from a first hand conversation with my friend Henry, who is Korean. Also, wikipedia offers further insight into this concept.

~Autumn

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