South Koreans could be at least one year younger soon…
Yoon Suk-yeol, the country's next president, is set to take office next month. He has promised to abolish the country's unique method of age calculation.
Photo via Reuters
In the Korean system, all babies are one-year-old on the day of their birth and add a year every January 1st. A child born on December 31st would turn two years old the following day.
This ancient way of calculating age was previously used throughout East Asia. Other countries, on the other hand, have long since switched to the more widely accepted system.
South Korea has attempted to break away from the traditional method of calculating age in the past, however, these attempts have always resulted in confusion.
There are now three techniques for calculating age in South Korea. South Koreans must figure out which approach corresponds to which legislation or administrative system for themselves.
Photo via The Guardian
According to Learning English, since the 1960s, South Korean official documents and laws have used the international system, in which babies are born at age 0 and add a year every birthday.
However, in social settings, many South Koreans continued to calculate their age using the traditional method.
Hmm, very interesting, kan? What do you guys think about this?
By: Aishah Akashah Ahadiat
