Hi I hope this isnāt a dumb question but I saw that you answered another question about the meaning of er-gege and I was wondering if gege was like oppa in that itās normally women who say it to older men or is it normal for guys to also say it?
Hi! No worries, itās a bit confusing. I donāt understand the ins and outs of it myself, I think women would normally only say it to older guys if they have a more intimate relationship (or maybe on the internet, fans might use it?). Either way, itās a cutesy term of address. I think usually women call their older male friends ge or surname-ge.
I donāt think itās a term guys generally use? I could be wrong. I did once see a video of two musical actors reading each otherās fan letters and they got embarrassed reading gege out loud since itās not something theyād call each other even though theyāre good friends.
(of course, itās an actual kinship term forĀ āolder brotherā as well, so anyone would use it to sayĀ āi have an older brother/two older brothers etc)
pls correct me if iām wrong. when I was young, I used to call everyone å„å„ and å§å§ (in cantonese), but Iām pretty sure thatās bc I donāt actually know cantonese (also they were way older, I was like 10 lol). I know a weird mix of set phrases and someĀ ābaby talkā language lol so take what I say with a grain of salt.