This is Why Yoona Calls Sooyoung "Unni" Who Is Only Three Months Older

Yoona and Sooyoung of Girls' Generation

Yoona and Sooyoung of Girls’ Generation were both born in 1990, and yet Yoona calls Sooyoung “unni.” “Unni” is a term used to call a woman older than oneself in Korea, and Koreans are very particular about these age and gender-specific honorifics.

"Unni" is an honorific term in Korean to refer to women who are older.

This is where you tilt your head in confusion. Yoona calls Sooyoung “unni,” while Sooyoung does not call the other five members who were born a year earlier - in 1989 - “unni.”

In order to understand this complex equation, one must understand two things: the Korean way of calculating age, and the Korean academic year system.

In Korea, everyone born in the same year is considered to be the same age. You turn one the moment you are born, and how old you are in Korea is actually the number of calendar years that you’ve lived in. Korea is the only country in the world that calculates age this way.

For instance, when a baby is born on December 31st, she turns two the very next day. Amongst people who are born in the same year, and therefore the same age, they don’t refer to each other by honorifics.

Girls' Generation

What complicates the matter is the Korean academic year system which is strictly age-based. In Korea, the new school year begins with spring semester in March, and every child born in the same year belongs in the same grade except for those born in January and February.

January and February children go to school a year early with children born in March to December of the previous year. At school, it’s customary for underclassmen to refer to upperclassmen by honorifics because it is generally assumed that kids in upper grades are older than those in lower grades.

How Sooyoung is "unni" to Yoona explained in chart

Yoona was born in May of 1990, and Sooyoung in February of the same year. As a February kid, Sooyoung was allowed in school a year early. By this calculation, Yoona has to call Sooyoung “unni,” although the two are considered the same age in Korea, as Sooyoung is in an upper grade than Yoona.

Twice

How Jihyo is "unni" to Mina explained in chart

Another girl group Twice reports a similar mix-match situation. Jihyo is born in February 1997, which means that she is in the same school grade with Jeongyeon, Sana, and Momo, all three of whom are born in 1996. Mina is born in March 1997, and although Mina and Jihyo’s birthdays are only about a month apart, Mina is supposed to call Jihyo “unni” according to the Korean decorum.

Because of these complications, this practice of including January and February kids in the upper class has been abolished in 2009. However, for those who entered school prior to 2009, the trouble of whom to call “unni” still remains.

By Arin Kimkim.arin@joongang.co.kr