Comment by GreyMolecules
6 months ago
This article does not address another layer that makes the Korean age system complicated: the "빠른" system. It refers to people born in January or February who, due to the school cutoff being in March, often enter school a year early and socially identify with those born in the previous calendar year.
For example, if I'm "빠른95", which indicates that I was born in 1995 between January and the end of February, I get to befriend and hang out with the ones born in 1994.
(Please note that Koreans typically make friends within the same narrow age band.)
No disrespect to Korean people, but as an outsider, this kind of gymnastics for establishing a time point for something seems really absurd to me.
As a native Korean speaker who has used this language for more than two good decades with Koreans, I'd count this as the primary reason why I love hanging out with English and Chinese speakers these days.
The language barrier between two Korean strangers (irony) is much thicker than when I talk to a passerby in English or Chinese asking for directions.
> Please note that Koreans typically make friends within the same narrow age band.
Everyone does to some degree or another. For example, Americans do this through middle school. It's not really until high school where you start mingling with other grades.
That's very interesting, thanks for mentioning it! I didn't know about that, hence I didn't include it. But it makes sense, I have sometimes noticed people asking whether the other was born early or late into the year, and change their standing based on that, but didn't know that that could have been because of the "빠른" system.
Being a 빠른 can put you in a slightly sticky situation, especially when combined with the strict hierarchy rules regarding honorifics (존댓말).
Typically, throughout middle school to university days, a South Korean individual is expected to use the honorific version of the language when speaking to someone older. This version involves a completely different set of vocabulary and grammar, used to show "respect to others" and sound "polite," effectively preventing one from being casual with others. Whereas a 빠른 is allowed to befriend people one year above their age and gets to use "반말" (the casual version of the language) with those peers.
A social complication can arise when two groups with a monotonic increase in age meet. Say, friend group A comprises a regular 95 and a 빠른 95. They became friends in high school and talk casually. Then there's group B, which consists of a regular 95 and a 빠른 96, who also became friends in high school. Now, when groups A and B start hanging out together at university, the 빠른 95 has to decide whether to use honorific or casual speech with the regular 95 and the 빠른 96.
The ones stuck in the middle, in this case the 빠른95, gets called "족보 브레이커", which roughly translates to "pedigree breaker".
Just so you know, the system has been adjusted a while ago so that new 빠른 no longer occur.
And it wouldn't matter anyway; the changes from the top are already having their effect, elementary school kids are starting to consistently use 만 나이 with each other.
this is a thing in the us as well—- tho the cutoff is august or september normally. there’s no name for it, but it’s real.
and american kids are also way more like to make friends in their school peer age group. i believe this is almost a universal truth for the first world
Absolutely true in elementary/middle school, and even a bit in the early parts of high school and college (upperclassmen don't want anything to do with "freshmen"), but in the adult world, I don't think age gaps of 5+ years between friends are uncommon at all.