Have you heard of the kangaroo tribe in South Korea? Are they some sort of people who have a close relationship with kangaroos and often visit Australia? 😂 In fact, the term refers to adults who liv

Dylan (certified)

Professional Teacher

Have you heard of the kangaroo tribe in South Korea? Are they some sort of people who have a close relationship with kangaroos and often visit Australia? 😂 In fact, the term refers to adults who live with their parents in their 30s and 40s mainly because of financial reasons. According to NBC, more than 50% of Korean adults in their 30s and 44% in their early 40s are considered members of the tribe. I'm sure Japan has a similar "problem" as well. This topic came up from one of my Kakaotalk group chat rooms and made me wonder how things were in the West. It's because there is a popular belief that most Westerners leave their parents once they are 18 and become financially independent. So, I tried to find how things were in the U.S. Surprisingly, based on the data I found, the number of "young adults" living with their parents in the country was pretty high as well. It shows the percentage of American adults (aged 18-29) living with their parents has constantly been around 45% since 2010 and even reached 52% last July when the pandemic was at its peak. (The number was pretty high in the U.K. as well.) These numbers would’ve most likely gone down if the research had included people in their 30s and 40s. But still, I thought they were way higher than my expectations. So, in conclusion, I feel like just more and more people are struggling financially around the world. 😂

Jun 4, 2021 11:11 PM

Corrections · 2

Have you heard of the kangaroo tribe in South Korea? Are they some sort of people who have a close relationship with kangaroos and often visit Australia? 😂 In fact, the term refers to adults who live with their parents in their 30s and 40s mainly because of financial reasons. According to NBC, more than 50% of Korean adults in their 30s and 44% in their early 40s are considered members of the tribe. I'm sure Japan has a similar "problem" as well. This topic came up in one of my Kakaotalk group chat rooms and it made me wonder how things were in the West. It's because there is a popular belief that most Westerners leave their parents once they are 18 and become financially independent. So, I tried to find how things were in the U.S. Surprisingly, based on the data I found, the number of "young adults" living with their parents in the country was pretty high as well. It shows the percentage of American adults (aged 18-29) living with their parents has constantly been around 45% since 2010 and even reached 52% last July when the pandemic was at its peak. (The number was pretty high in the U.K. as well.) These numbers would’ve most likely gone down if the research had included people in their 30s and 40s. But still, I thought they were way higher than my expectations. So, in conclusion, I feel like more and more people are struggling financially around the world. 😂

It's true that we are all struggling financially. One thing I've learned more recently is that a lot of children return to live with elderly parents after their marriages break up. This is mutually beneficial as a mother may be getting older and need help caring for the house. She likes to spend time with her children, and cooking for them makes her feel useful again. For the child it is free housing and free food. Everyone wins. In Australia we have housing problems at the moment. Everyone with a house in Australia who lived overseas has come back to get away from covid, because it is safe here. This means that there are fewer houses to rent and many people with jobs are finding themselves homeless. A colleague of mine will be homeless soon and she can't a place to live. The use of the word kangaroo will be a reference to a kangaroo carrying its children in a pouch. A similar thing is "kangaroo care" where babies are carried around strapped to their mother's stomach. Kangaroo care is used for premature babies and works better than temperature controlled cribs.

June 5, 2021

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