One of my students called me 할아범탱이 [harabeomtaengi]. I didn’t really know what this meant, but I could guess it was related in some way to 할아버지 [harabeoji = grandfather, old man]. I asked my colleagues later what it meant, and they said it’s kind of an informal way of saying grandpa that can be either condescending or affectionate, depending on context. I would guess since it was coming from a second grader, it’s more likely to be the latter than the former. I’ve decided the best idiomatic translation would be a word like “gramps.”
I confess that, as has happened before, it’s really disconcerting if not downright depressing to be called “gramps,” regardless of context or language. I’m only 46.
It’s the gray hair, I would guess. And receding hairline. The fact that Korean men universally dye their hair in middle age and late middle age means that only genuinely really old men have gray hair. So that sets the cultural context.
I think I want to join a monastery.
