Photologue @theuostimes7
In South Korea, we use three ways to count ages. First of all, there is a unique Korean way of age calculation. It is called “Korean age.” People become one year old when they are born and get old when the year changes. This method is mainly used in everyday life.
The second one is “international age”, which starts with 0 years old at the moment of birth and adds a year to a birthday year later. This is the same as the international standard. It is used in government documents such as taxes or welfare.
Finally, there is a calculation that starts with 0 years old and get older as the year changes. Some laws, such as Juvenile Protection Act, or the military service law uses this calculation.
Because of those things, there are some problems happening between people. Koreans use “formal” and “informal” language depending on the age of the other person. If someone is older, we use formal language to show respect, and to the people younger, we talk to them casually.
However, in the case of a person born early in the year, they make some problems. Those people can become friends with the others who are one year older than them, and the others who are same ages with them. We call those people “family tree breaker.”
Like this, Koreans tries to rank people by ages. To solve this confusion, President Yoon announced that he would unify the international age as a legal and social standard. There are some opinions toward this pledge, and more discussions are needed.