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In Korea, someone you've just met often asks your age. It can seem rude, but there's a reason. What is it?

Age sets the titles, speech level, and relationship (older brother/sister, senior, etc.)
In Korea, age changes titles (hyeong, nuna, oppa, eonni, seonbae) and speech level (honorific vs. casual), so asking is a way to set the relationship. It's less a privacy invasion than a social signal for 'how I should treat you.' If it feels uncomfortable, it's fine to brush it off lightly.

In Korean, kinship-style titles and speech level both depend on relative age, so asking someone's age early on is really asking "how should I address you and speak to you" — whether as hyeong, nuna, oppa, eonni, or seonbae, and whether to use honorific or casual speech. Without knowing the age gap, Koreans genuinely don't know how to talk to you correctly.

It has nothing to do with taxation, and it isn't meaningless nosiness either — it serves a real linguistic and social function that many languages without age-based speech levels simply don't need.

If it feels uncomfortable, a light non-answer is generally fine — Koreans understand that not everyone shares this expectation, especially with foreigners.

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