The Korean Images of Old Age: A Glimpse of Verbal Culture

Abstract

In this brief presentation. I am not going to deal with facts about the phenomenon of aging or about the old people in Korean society. Since the demographics, social conditions, cultural life, and other problems of the aged in Korea and policies to cover them are all well described and analyzed in the works of other expert participants, I would rather touch upon a narrow subject of cultural perceptions of being old in Korea, as reflected in terminologies and common sayings dealing with this subject. This, in a way, would provide a broad backdrop against which other more factual analyses would make better sense for deeper understanding of the phenomenon of aging and the aged in the Korean social-cultural context.