Has the Korean age counting system been concerning you? No need to stress any longer! with this new law change, Korea has abandoned the previous age counting system.
What exactly is the Korean Age? 🇰🇷
If you are unfamiliar, Korea used a specific age counting system that is not used anywhere else!
To calculate your Korean age, you simply add one year to your birth year, and a second for the passing New Year. If you would like a more detailed explanation, check out our previous video on the Korean Age.
Why is Korea switching to the international age?
As of June 28, 2023, a new law has been established to focus on using your full or ‘international age’(만 나이) instead.
Here are the main reasons:
- Reduce confusion
Because different systems were used in casual, legal, and administrative contexts, there were lots of mix-ups, especially with tickets, eligibility, contracts, and age-based pricing. The government hoped that using just the international age would make everything clearer. - Prevent legal & social conflict
For things like employment contracts, university admission, travel or overseas work, unclear age-counting could cause disputes. Standardizing age helps eliminate ambiguity. - Change in cultural context
Age and hierarchy play a big role in Korean society: knowing someone’s age often determines how you speak to them, what honorifics you use, etc. By eliminating the Korean age, this softens some of the pressure from the age hierarchy in Korea.
Why didn’t this change happen sooner?
The cultural acceptance of switching from the Korean age has actually been more of a recent consensus. Before the 2010s, the Korean Age system was the preferred counting method in Korea.
In recent times, however, polls have shown that Korean people have become more fond of relying solely on the international age.
Looking Ahead.. 🧐
This change has been debated for a while and its effects are still unknown. While this change may bring new cultural customs for Korean people, the best way to understand it is to wait and see how it unfolds.
For more information about Korean culture, check out some of our other videos as well as the course materials provided on our website.
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