Birthdays

Koreans have two birthdays each, with maybe a few miraculous exceptions. Sounds sweet but neither of them has very much significance in Korean society anyway.

Celebrating birthdays is a new thing here – a borrowed custom. So you might get dinner but you don’t cash in on the presents at all.

The birthday on a Korean’s passport and driver’s license is his or her “due date” – what the doctor figures to be nine months from conception.

The birthday they celebrate with their friends and the day they most consider to be their birthday is the day that they were actually born.

Asking the kids about their birthdays in class is always a confusing one. I do it anyway. I love the confusion.

Neither of them really matters because on New Year’s Day all Koreans become a year older than they were on December 31st.

To further complicate matters, they’re considered one year old when they are born. So calculating their age in our terms is not always that easy for them to do.

Some can just subtract a year. Others subtract two. Someone born on, let’s say December 1st, became two years old just one month after he or she was born.

So “how old are you?” is always a fun classroom question too.