And about ages....

One of our earliest lessons here is not to take anything at face value. Whether it's the cost of something you want to buy or a request to do something a little out of the ordinary, you will usually find out something different if you just ask a few questions. And so it is with age. I have heard before that the Chinese count their age differently, although I have also heard several different versions of how and why they count the way they do. Most of them result in people being a year younger (by our western way of counting - not to say that is right though) than they say they are. (Nice being in a culture where AGE rather than youth is revered.)

I didn't think much about this little curiosity the first couple of months we were here...I had a few other things to deal with. :) It came to light when the teachers at Kristen's school asked for the kids' birthdates. I have another little boy, aged 5, also at the school. I didn't have his birthdate in my list, so I got it from our administrative person. That explained a lot! He always seemed a little young for 5, and no wonder because he isn't -- he won't turn 5 until May.

So then I decided to look a little more closely at the birthdates I have for the kids in my house compared to the ages I was told for them. My 13 year old boy, it seems, is actually 8 days younger than my 12 year old daughter! I asked him how old he is and he told me shi-san (13), so I checked his birthdate...and asked him 1995 or 1996. He laughed at me - 1996, mama!! (Like I couldn't count or something - lol!) So he IS 8 days younger than Marissa. Which thrilled Marissa no end, because it's cool to be the oldest kid in the house and it's WAY cool to be 13 instead of 12.

I then happened to hear my 5 year old boy tell one of the ayis that he is liu sway - 6 years old. Of course, he is! The really confusing thing is that not everyone counts the same way. I have also heard some of the kids give one age in English and the older age in Chinese. One of my girls is 11 (our way) and she says she is 11. Now and then she says 12, with a grin, but clearly she knows the difference. My head spins trying to keep this all straight, it's just like learning a new language.

One thing I can say for SURE -- I won't be using the Chinese way of counting for myself any time soon.