A law leaves behind their traditional “Korean age” calculation system, which gives them one year from the moment of birth.
South Korea on Thursday approved a law that eliminates the traditional method of counting age and adopts the international standard, a change that will make its citizens younger in official documents.
South Koreans will be subtracted in 2023 a year or even two thanks to the new law. The current system, widely known as “korean age”gives people a year of age at birth and then adds years every January 1, instead of on their birthday.
But on Thursday, the country’s National Assembly passed a series of laws requiring the use of the international age count system on official documents. These changes will be implemented in June.
The decision was made to “resolve the social confusion caused by the mixed use of age calculations,” the National Assembly said in a statement.
Other calculation method for smoking or drinking
In addition to the traditional system, the country also employs another method to determine the legal smoking or drinking age that attributes zero years of age to newborns and then adds one every January 1.
Since the 1960s, some medical and legal records have also used the international standard.
This implies that, for example, on December 9, 2022, a person born on December 31, 1992 is 29 years old in the international system, 30 years old in the Korean drinking method, and 31 years old “Korean age”.
Administrative and social problems
President Yoon Suk-yeol promoted this change because of the administrative and social problems caused by this disparity in counting methods.
For some South Koreans it was an obvious reason for joy: “I’m becoming two years younger, I’m so happy,” said one user on Twitter. “I turned two shortly following I was born because I was born in December. Finally, I am regarding to get my real age back,” he added.
Jeong Da-eun, a 29-year-old office worker, is happy with the change, as she has always had to think twice when asked her age abroad. “I remember that foreigners looked at me puzzled because it took me a long time to answer my age.”
“Who wouldn’t want to be one or two years younger?” he added.
