What does “개띠” mean in Korean?

Ask a Korean their age and they may answer with an animal instead: 개띠 (gaetti), “Dog year.” Everyone born in a dog year — 1970, 1982, 1994 — shares the sign, so naming your 띠 (tti) pins your age to a twelve-year band without stating a number. It’s a softer way to sort out who’s older, which in Korean instantly settles who outranks whom.

띠 is the native-Korean word for the twelve-animal zodiac tied to your birth year (쥐 rat, 소 ox, 호랑이 tiger… 개 dog, 돼지 pig). Because the cycle repeats every twelve years, one sign can mean two ages a dozen years apart — exactly the trap here. A man answers “개띠인데요” (“I’m a Dog”), and the other has to work out whether that’s '70 or '82 (팔십이년생) before deciding who’s allowed to be called 형 (older brother). In everyday speech “무슨 띠예요?” (“What’s your sign?”) is the gentle stand-in for the blunt “몇 살이에요?”