Did you know that a South Korean baby born on New Year’s Eve is already 2 years old when the clock strikes 12? Yes, believe it or not, how Koreans calculate their age might leave you startled if you have never heard this before. In South Korea, a newborn baby is already 1 year old on the day of their birth and then gets an additional year when the calendar hits the new year. This is because in ...

Test your knowledge of Korea with our weekly quiz on the language, culture, history or anything K-related. Answer: c Like in other countries, there are family names in Korea that can be traced back to royal lineages or aristocrats, known as “yangban,” during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). For example, a person with the last name Kim originating from Gimhae is part of the Gimhae Kim clan. This...

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s name can be pronounced in more than one way. Some pronounce his name in Korea as “Yoon Seo-kyol” while others call him “Yoon Sung-nyeol.” Neither is technically incorrect, according to the National Institute of Korean Language. But his name is not alone in having more than one pronunciation. Olympic gold medalist Kim Yuna also can be pronounced as both “K...

Test your knowledge of Korea with our weekly quiz on the language, culture, history or anything K-related. Answer: ⓑ South Koreans can travel to far-flung, exotic destinations if they want, but there is one place that remains off limits -- North Korea. The irony of this is that the two countries are just 195 kilometers apart, from capital to capital. By road, it would be around a three-hour...

When I first entered my hotel room in Frankfurt, Germany many years ago, I was shocked to see my name written in red. Although this was the welcoming message from the hotel, I immediately called management to have the color of my name changed. In Korea, names are written in red only after one is deceased. Foreigners have no problem with names written in a variety of colors, but when in Korea, ...

Despite changes in gender roles, ‘men’s wealth for women’s beauty’ seems to hold true in dating scene

Test your knowledge of Korea with our weekly quiz on the language, culture, history or anything K-related. Answer: b English is a compulsory subject in Korean school, taught from the third year of elementary school (age 6-7) all the way to the final year of high school (age 17-18). This means that Koreans would have learnt the language for a total of 10 years by the time they finish high school...

When children get together to play, it is inevitable that there is one child who is the least skilled or younger than the rest -- especially if a younger sibling has followed their brother or sister out to play. Typically, these children are picked last to play on a team, or they could be left out altogether if there are an odd number of players for a game that calls for equal numbers. Korean ch...

Lee Ru-bin, a 31-year-old Korean woman who lives with her Lithuanian boyfriend, Paulius, in Germany, can attest to the vast difference in perceptions. “I think couples should live together before getting married to understand each other more. Whether your partner has a sense of hygiene or unique lifestyle is something that you can’t see while going for dates outside. This is the case not only in...

Linnea from Sweden who has been seeing a Korean guy was surprised that many Korean couples keep communicating even when they’re busy with their work or hanging out with other friends. “In my country, when couples are apart, they don’t constantly call or text. But many Korean couples seem to want to know about the whereabouts of their loved ones in near real time,” she said. On this, Sarah from ...

Perilla leaves are often clumped together because of their thin layers, making it hard for even the most dexterous chopstick user to take just one leaf at a time. Friendship with a member of the opposite gender, however, isn’t a controversial matter in Germany, like it is in Korea, said Lara, a German who is dating a Korean man. “It’s not easy to find Germans being jealous of their lover’s oppo...

Crazy for love milestones On KakaoTalk, the almost-ubiquitous messaging app for Koreans, it is not difficult to find users who display the number of days they have been together with someone on their personal profile page. Other than updating their relationship status to friends and acquaintances, the calendar icon serves a very practical purpose -- counting the days for important milestones in...

Test your knowledge of Korea with our weekly quiz on the language, culture, history or anything K-related. Answer: b Spoon theory is a euphemism used to describe a person’s family background, usually related to financial situation and social influence, by comparing it to spoons made of different materials. The phrase is derived from the English expression “born with a silver spoon in one’s mou...

* From waking up a dozing student to tidying up graves, online advertisements with unusual but real job descriptions offer a peek into the Korean society. The Korea Herald looks at some of these unusual ads. The following is the third installment. –- Ed. A job ad that still exists on the hyperlocal community app Karrot Market is from a person searching for someone to do his or her homework assig...

Among a variety of couple items in Korea, the “couple ring” -- not to be confused with the wedding ring -- came as a surprise to some foreigners. Aybuke, a 27-year-old Turkish graduate student from Chung-Ang University in Seoul, said, “Couples sometimes match their clothes in my country, but Korean couple stuff is on another level. I don’t prefer to wear a ring unless I’m married.” She has been...