At current it is common for South Koreans to haven’t only one age, however three, an “international age,” a “Korean age” and a “calendar age.”
That transfer, which follows a long-running debate over the difficulty, will carry the nation into line with many of the remainder of the world and reduce down on authorized discrepancies that come up from the usage of three completely different techniques.
In South Korea, an individual’s “international age” refers back to the variety of years since they had been born, and begins at zero, the identical system utilized in most different international locations.
But when requested their age in casual settings, most South Koreans will reply with their “Korean age,” which might be one and even two years older than their “international age”.
Under this method, infants are thought of a yr outdated on the day they’re born, with a yr added each January 1.
In some circumstances, South Koreans additionally use their “calendar age”, a form of mash-up between worldwide and Korean age, which think about infants as zero years outdated the day they’re born and provides a yr to their age each January 1.
Take “Gangnam Style” singer Psy, for instance.
Born on December 31, 1977, he’s thought of 44 by worldwide age; 45 by calendar yr age; and 46 by Korean age.
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If this sounds complicated, it’s, with day by day life within the nation typically switching between the hodgepodge of various techniques.
Most folks use Korean age, which has its roots in China, in on a regular basis life and social situations, whereas worldwide age is extra typically used for authorized and official issues, as an illustration, when coping with civil legal guidelines.
However, some legal guidelines, together with these surrounding the authorized ages for ingesting, smoking, and navy conscription, use calendar yr age.
The regulation handed Thursday will standardise the usage of worldwide age throughout all “judicial and administrative areas,” in accordance with the parliament web site and paperwork associated to the invoice.
“The state and local governments shall encourage citizens to use their ‘international age’ and conduct necessary promotion for that,” it says.
The determination is the results of years of campaigning by lawmakers fed up with the a number of techniques.
“The revision is aimed at reducing unnecessary socio-economic costs because legal and social disputes as well as confusion persist due to the different ways of calculating age,” Yoo Sang-bum of the ruling People Power Party instructed parliament, in accordance with Reuters.
Another invoice launched by lawmaker Hwang Ju-hong in 2019 argued that aside from sowing confusion, the three strategies additionally brought on battle by “fostering a culture of hierarchy based on age and avoiding certain months for childbirth.”
