Why South Koreans are about to get a year or two younger
All South Korean citizens are set to become officially slightly younger as the country standardises its method of calculating age.
South Koreans are set to become one or even two years younger - at least on official paperwork.
The country's parliament has passed a law to scrap Korea's two traditional methods of counting age.
The most widely used method is the the so-called "Korean age system", in which a person is one year old at birth and then gains a year on the first day of each new year.
In a separate method - the "counting age" - a person's age is calculated from zero at birth and a year is added on 1 January. It's used mainly to calculate the legal drinking and smoking age.
But, perhaps confusingly, South Korea also uses the globally recognised of calculating age.
This means that, for example, as of 8 December 2022, a person born on December 31 2002 is 19 under the international system, 20 under the counting system and 21 under the Korean system.
From June 2023, only the internationally recognised method will remain.
"On the whole it has been welcomed," says journalist Nemo Kim. "But the thing is our language is heavily dictated by age difference."
(Photo: Happy little girl blowing out the candles on her birthday cake. Credit: Getty Images)
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