Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/110

96 times happens that a very poor family will not be able to contract a marriage for their son, and so we occasionally meet a man thirty years old with his hair still hanging down his back. This means that he is only a boy, and is so treated by every one in the matter of speech. But the boy who is honored with the precious topknot is addressed in middle or high talk, though he may be only eight or ten years old. It is amusing to see a lot of men sitting around talking, when one of these big boys twenty or more years old comes into the room, and every one addresses him in low form; then a little boy only ten years old, but adorned with a topknot, comes in, and every one addresses him in middle or high forms of speech. A great part of one's education is made up in knowing the proper use of these different forms of speech. To mix them and use the low where the high ought to be used is to give insult and brand the user as a rude person. To use the high where the low ought to be used is to embarrass the one addressed, who will drop his head and look ashamed, as much as to say: "Why do you address me in such honorable terms?" Many a foreigner has been embarrassed by using the wrong ending.

Every village boy has one great day in every year. This is his birthday, though it is not the anniversary of his birth, but New Year's day. Every Korean has a birthday at New Year's. Hence a baby born on the last day of the year is counted two years old on the next day. This comes about by the fact that a baby is