In Korea, it is not rude to ask a person for his/her age since it is important to distinguish which honorific to use as a way to be polite. Using honorifics in Korean is a new concept to me because, depending on the age of the person you are speaking to, you use verb specific endings. This age is important to Koreans because as a Confucian-based society, social order and respecting elders is embedded in everyday life and affects the way people interact with each other. My Korean friends often dread being the maknae, meaning the youngest in the group, because they have to do anything that the older ones tell them to do. The youngest has to be the most hospitable and take care of everyone by making sure that every cup of water is always kept filled. My experience being the maknae of the group taught me that Koreans are playful with their friends by constantly teasing the youngest. Recently, I started working as an English tutor, and I just happened to be the youngest out of the five students that I was tutoring. They were shy to speak English at first, but the way that they regarded me changed once they learned that I was younger than them. They switched their honorifics to banmal which means informal speech and immediately relaxed around me! What’s interesting about honorifics is that, even if you are one year apart, you cannot be considered to be friends. For example, when addressing me, my Korean friends would refer to me as either their older sister (unnie from a female speaker or nuna from a male speaker) or younger sister (dongsaeng from both male and female speakers) if we are not exactly the same age, as a sign of respect.
