What Age means in Korea

          In the Korean language, there's formal and informal. When you use formal and informal depends on who you're talking to. If the person you're speaking to or addressing is older than you or is in higher rank than you (such as, your boss), then you must speak formally to them.

          To stem off from this, let's look deeper into age in Korea. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that age is a great advantage to have, the older you are, the more respect and honor you receive. I've been taught this common sense since I was a young child so I take it as a given, but to be really honest, this whole age thing sometimes annoys me.

          When I say that the elderly get more respect, I mean that basically, everything they say goes. This has been less apparent these days which I do find sad. But the greatest thing that I find difficult to accept is the fact that when you're eating out with an elderly person and they offer you alcohol, you must take it. Otherwise, you're being disrespectful and it's seen as an honor when an elderly pours you a drink. I find this to be wrong because some people have certain values and don't want to drink. Even if it's an unfortunate truth that drinking is a large part of Korean society, I don't think anyone should feel obligated to drink when someone older than them insists they take a drink. Now, according to my dad, if I ever find myself to be in that situation, I can just politely refuse and they'll move on but I'm still uneasy about that. I've seen enough Korean dramas and have seen that when someone refuses to drink an elder will be like, "Oh, come on!"

          But let's take a look at the bright side, when you are the older person, then oh yeah, it's pretty sweet. Actually, you can never, ever, refer to someone older than you by "you" (너) to them. Unless you use the formal word for "you" but that's hardly used in Korean conversations. Also, you can't never, ever call someone who is older than you by their name. So it may be hard for you to wrap this around your head and you may very well be wondering how people interact with each other then. Well there are various titles you call someone older than you, such as hyung (형) if you're a guy and the other person is also a guy and if he's not too much older than you and you're kind of close to him or he's you're actual older brother. Oppa (오빠) is the what the girls call their older brothers or another guy who is older than them and who are close to them. Noona (누나) is what guys call older sisters or any other older girls and unnie (언니) is what girls call their older sisters or another older girl who is close to you.

	For a male	For a female
Older brother/older guy	Hyung (형)	Oppa (오빠)
Older sister/ older girl	Noona (누나)	Unnie (언니)

  

          So in a Korean family, if a younger child called their older brother/sister by "you" or their first name, then that child would get in trouble by their parents. Plus the oldest child gets to be always be first. So depending on what position you're in, an older person can be a nuisance to you or if you are older, then you have certain advantages, in Korean culture.(567)