Names and why Koreans don't use them

Ever watched a Korean film and noticed the subtitle is totally different to what's being said? Often that's because Koreans don't use names when they talk to their friends.

In Korea, your social status is more important than you as an individual, and your relationship with the person you're talking to is more important than the person themselves. Just as with verb endings, the most important factor in setting up a friendship-relationship, is age.

And this is the reason why Koreans always ask "how old are you?". They need to work out how to structure their relationship and what to call each other. Once you know who's older, the younger person never refers to the older one by name. The older one, on the other can if they want.
The names (or words you use to call each other) are family member names. So essentially everyone who you would call "friend" in English, you call brother or sister.

Names in Korea perform only an official function, so a name is generally only written, or when the only way to distinguish between people is to use a name. Take a class for example, everyone except the teacher is of the same status, so names are used by the teacher to tell students apart. Remember though, the teacher is high status. If you call someone older than you by name, then you're putting youself higher than them, much like a teacher talking to a pupil.

Coming from a society where everyone is "equal" calling people as "big brother" when they're not your big brother is definitely awkward, but it has to be done. I find this much harder than the 문법mun-beop / grammar my teachers always go on about.