{"id":5815,"date":"2018-07-11T23:30:23","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T04:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/?p=5815"},"modified":"2018-07-11T21:57:23","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T02:57:23","slug":"oppa-unni-hyung-and-noona-age-isnt-just-a-number-in-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/oppa-unni-hyung-and-noona-age-isnt-just-a-number-in-korea\/","title":{"rendered":"Oppa, Unni, Hyung, and Noona: Age isn\u2019t just a number in Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are a big fan of K-pops, K-movies, and K-dramas, you often hear the following nouns by themselves or coming after someone\u2019s name. : \uc624\ube60(oppa), \uc5b8\ub2c8(unni), \ud615(hyung), and \ub204\ub098(noona). Do you know what they mean?<\/p>\n

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photo by KLM<\/p><\/div>\n

Have you ever found yourself scratching your head because you are being asked this somewhat private question, \u201c\uba87\u00a0<\/em>\uc0b4\uc774\uc5d0\uc694<\/em><\/span>?\u00a0<\/em>(How old are you?)\u201d from a Korean who you newly met? Korean people often ask someone\u2019s age because Korean language has different types of terms, which distinguish people, based on their ages. Furthermore, Korean people rarely address anyone who is older than themselves by a pronoun \u2018you.\u2019<\/p>\n

Age is not just a number in Korea. The value of Confucianism is permeated in Korean culture and language. Showing respect for someone who is older, or with seniority status, than you are is a virtue in Korean culture. Thus, one\u2019s age is relative to each other in a conversation because age differences determine the following factors in the Korean language:<\/p>\n