Why do Koreans have two different ages?

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A Korean baby born on Dec. 31 turns two years old the next day. Here's why.

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My takeaway from it is that you shouldn't trust a Korean girl when she says that she's 18.

occamschainsaw

Awww whatchu mean being older is not good? Being older means you're one step closer to the sweet release of death, which seems pretty gr8 to me

*edit* issa joke I am fine and please take care of yourselves lovelies <3

youngestk

Koreans have three ways of expressing age: year of birth, year of life, and full years.

1. 저 사람은 92년생이다. That person was born in '92.
2. 저 사람은 26살이다. That person is in her 26th year of life.
3. 저 사람은 만 25살이다. That person is 25 full years old.

The confusion comes from the way #2 has been translated into English over the years. This is the age often called "Korean years." #3 is the international standard and is what English speakers mean when they say, "I'm 25 years old."

There is nothing weird or confusing about it, really. In the West, for example, a baby born in the last month, in 2017, is one month old and in her first year of life. So she has "two different ages, " but not really.

DanielGraham

Basically, your Korean age is how many "calendar years" (such as 1984 or 2017) you've lived through.
For example, if you were born in 1999, you've lived through the years, 1999, 2000, 2001... and so on until 2017 (assuming your reading this in 2017). That's a total of 19 calendar years aka Korean age.
If you are born in December 31, 2017, and it's January 1, 2018, then you've lived in 2017 and 2018, a total of 2 years.

harrylee

To this day, I still have no idea how old my Korean mom actually is.

spinafire

Ive now heard of mental age, Korean age, lunar age or just Chinese/Vietnamese age, universal age...how many more.

friesatam

I'm Korean. My international age is 24 but korean age is 26. But after my birth day this year, My age will be 25. If some baby born in december 31th, his age is 1 but his age will be 2 in next day. I I definately agree that It's so irritating age system.

thffkfltm

I see a lot of people saying "I'm 15 in US but 17 in South Korea?? I can drive"

It doesn't work like that.. legal driving age in s.k is 18, counted by US way.
you get to drive much earlier than south korean kids

jadecho

so, everyone's birthday is on the same day???

darshidwivedi

It's such a random system. Whenever I'm in Korea, I'm always clarifying if somebody's talking about they're international or Korean age. However, it's pretty sweet to just switch whenever you feel like it. So technically, you're not lying if you say you're older there 😅

elizabethchung

Korean Age Counting system is not related to the Lunar Calendar but to the fact that all the countries using the age system like Korea have history books but do not have the year counting system like A.D.

kychoi

I am 25 in Mexico, so I would be either 26 or 27 in Korea? I was born in February 4 in 1992.

JoseAlanGuerrero

For all the people saying this is dumb and pointless, these same people will probably look at some stuff from your culture and say its dumb and pointless.

Mythinu