Recently on Wednesday, Koreans became younger than their real age. Wondering how? That’s because laws in Korea have standardized the way the government calculates age.
While the whole world calculates age in almost the same way, Korea has its own way of calculating age. In Korea, there are three common ways to calculate age. However, the Korean government recently changed the civil code to recognize a uniform way to calculate age.
The three calculation methods are:
This is the most famous method in the country. According to Korean age calculation, an individual is considered 1 year old at the time of birth. Every January 1, one year is added to their age. The same is true in the case of a person born on December 31, as that person will be considered 2 years old the very next day. In this sense, the year of birth, not the day of birth, determines the age of an individual. In Korea, the Korean age calculation is accepted in social situations.
- The age calculation method is used globally
The method is to calculate age, one starts from 0 on the individual’s date of birth, then adds one year to each birthday. This is the global age calculation method.
Although this is a common method elsewhere, for Koreans, this method is a departure from the “Korean age” method. Since 1962, this method has been used for official and legal purposes.
- The “age” method
This method is probably a combination of the above two methods. The age counting process starts from 0 at birth. However, it will add one year of age on January 1 every year. This method is applied to laws such as the Military Service Act.
Do all these methods create confusion?
Correct. Koreans have faced the problem of confusion and errors in every situation such as labor disputes, health recommendations, social hierarchy, etc.
For example, inconsistent age standards have been used by health officials during coronavirus vaccinations.
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New rule
The new law in Korea recognizes the international age calculation system, which uses a person’s actual date of birth to calculate age. In this way, everyone in Korea who used to calculate their age using the ancient “Korean age” method will become one or two years younger.
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Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: pagasa.edu.vn