How old are you (in European years)?

Factual Questions
21

Pluto,
You’re right of course - guessing ages tends to lead to disappointment. But this was a pleasant bunch who wanted to know how old I was. I said I wouldn’t tell them unless someone could guess it exactly, so I know they were trying hard.

22

Ai\ Yue- Ha
John, I experienced basically the same thing neuro-trash grrrl heard or experienced, both during my time in Taiwan and from my Chinese wife (20+ years before coming here). My wife now recalculates so fast that she may not be doing it consciously at all, but “in Chinese” she’s a year older than here. Please note that:

  1. neuro-trash grrrl relates what I would call the Apparently Very Traditional version. The age/birthday customs in Taiwan are indeed changing and becoming conflated with Western habits, and may have (probably) changed even more in the P.R.O.C. (which sounds to be your teacher’s place of origin?) than in the R.O.C.

  2. Celebrations are to some extent a separate matter from age-calculations. Even if the major celebration happened only every 10 years, people would still on occasion need to know “how old” they were, and saying 10 when the “truth” is 18 doesn’t work.

  3. VERY PROBABLY the calculation of age is a function of the “astrological” 12-year cycle. If one was born a Monkey, and now it was a Dragon Year, one would be - well, I don’t know, and have none of my references to hand. But the result would be a calculation of how many years one has lived IN, and would increment on New Year’s Day.

  4. The “long and short” years have to do with the traditional lunar calendar and the fact that Chinese New Year’s day moves around from year to year in the solar calendar we, and NOW they, use.

  5. In practice, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law always remember what we in the U.S. would call their actual birthdays, and expect them to be recognized.

So maybe try this: instead of asking your teacher about “birthdays,” ask her about “age.” Traditionally, how did an individual know HOW OLD they were? (And if she gives you an explanation that has ANYTHING to do with the Western Solar Calendar, be skeptical. She’s telling you the truth as she understands it, but it ain’t “traditional.” And if so, tell me if I’m right: she’s from the Mainland, right?)

23

Andros: my wife told me this, she was in Paraguay or Uruguay for a summer.