Age All South Koreans Now Will Be Younger After The Issuance Of The Law That Deletes Traditional Counting Methods

Photo by Chinh Le Duc on Unsplash

JAKARTA - Try asking South Koreans how old they are? It could be that they will be confused themselves.

It's nothing. So far, South Koreans have adhered to different calculations. Unlike Indonesian citizens -- the world in general.

In Indonesia, newborns are considered the age of the daily to weekly count. Until he finally turned 1 year old.

Now in South Korea, the government has issued a law to remove traditional age counting methods and adopt international standards. As a result, citizens can be one or two years younger in official documents.

Koreans are considered to be one year old at birth and one year added every January 1. This is the age most quoted in everyday life, quoted from Channel News Asia, Thursday, December 8.

Separate systems also exist for mandatory military purposes or calculate the legal age for drinking alcohol and smoking, where a person's age is calculated from zero at birth and one year added on January 1.

Since the early 1960s, South Korea has also used international norms for medical and legal documents to calculate from zero at birth and add one year for each birthday.

The confusing system structure will disappear - at least in official documents - when the new law that stipulates using only the international age counting method comes into effect in June 2023.

"This revision aims to reduce unnecessary socio-economic costs due to legal and social disputes and confusion remains due to differences in how to calculate age," said Yoo Sang-bum of the ruling People's Force Party to parliament.

Jeong Da-eun, a 29-year-old office worker, pleased with the change, said she always had to think twice when asked about her age abroad.

"I remember foreigners looking at me confusedly because it took me a long time to come back with an answer how old I was."

"Who wouldn't like to get a year or two younger?" he added.