“How old are you?”.
It is a simple question with a clear answer. But for those who live in South Korea, answering it is anything but easy.
When a baby is born, in this country it is considered to be 1 year old. Come the New Year, they gain another year. This means that a baby born in December turns two in a few weeks.
But this “Korean age” method may soon change, as the country’s president-elect, Yoon Suk-yeol, is proposing that this centuries-old way of counting years be done away with.
Lee Yong-ho, the head of the president-elect’s transition committee, He said the incoming administration was looking to standardize the way age is counted to bring South Korea in line with the rest of the world.
He said the differing age calculations have resulted in “persistent confusion” and “unnecessary social and economic costs.”
The proposal appears to have found wide acceptance among many South Koreans, but experts say they have doubts about whether it will actually be implemented.
One question, three answers
There are three ways of counting age in South Korea.
Officially, the country has used the international counting system, using a person’s date of birth, in most legal definitions and administrative processes since 1962.
But the country also has another official way of counting age, in which babies are born at 0 years old and gain a year every January 1.
Thus, a baby who was born, for example, in December 2020 turned two this January 2022, even if the actual date of birth is in December.
This method is used primarily to define the legal age in areas of law that affect a significant percentage of the population, including conscription or who is considered a minor in cases of abuse.
And then there is the “Korean age” method, which is more widely used in society at large. Everyone is automatically one year old at birth and becomes one year older on New Year’s Day, regardless of their date of birth.
Under these systems, Kim Tae-hyung -from the popular band BTS- was born on December 30, 1995, so he is 28 years old in Korean age, 26 years old internationally, and 27 years old in Korean official age.
For some, it may just be a number, but age is something that is taken very seriously in South Korea.
“For South Koreans, finding out whether or not someone is older than them is more important than finding out the person’s name in certain social contexts. It is essential in choosing how to address that person and the title that is required,” explains Shin Ji – young, a professor in the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Korea University.
Young people feel “ridiculed”
The Korean tradition of how to tell age has its origins in China and different parts of Asia. But South Korea is believed to be the only country that still counts age in this way.
“Globalization has made Koreans more internationally aware. This has an impact on young people, as they feel that Koreans are being ridiculed. [por estos sistemas de conteo]says Kim Eun-ju, a professor of law and politics at Hansung University.
But aside from that, the official rules have also had real effects on South Koreans.
Some parents, for example, have tried to cheat the birth registration system because they worry their December babies will be at a disadvantage in school and, as a result, later in life.
During the pandemic, age standardization was also raised, as the health authorities used the international age and the Korean age interchangeably to establish the group of people who would receive the vaccine, which caused a lot of confusion.
Abandon tradition?
This is not the first time that South Korea’s rulers have tried to come up with a unified method for counting age.
In 2019 and 2021, two legislators proposed similar bills that subsequently failed to become law in the Assembly.
However, experts are divided on what the new measure means for Korean society, despite agreeing with the proposal from an administrative perspective.
Jang Yoo-seung, a researcher at Dankook University’s Research Center for Oriental Studies, told the BBC that the Korean age is a reflection of tradition.
“Our society doesn’t seem overly concerned with abandoning tradition. Will we risk abandoning our own uniqueness and culture and becoming more monotonous?”
But one thing everyone can agree on is that even if international counting is adopted, South Koreans are unlikely to stop using their “Korean age” any time soon.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-61168847, IMPORTING DATE: 2022-04-21 21:50:05
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