Name: Korean era.
Age: Korean.
Real age: This is going to be really confusing, right?
It definitely looks like that. I promise it’s simpler than it looks. Let me ask you a question. How old was he when he was born?
This is easy. I was zero years old. This is great! Unless, of course, you were born in South Korea.
Why? Because then you will be one year old.
No, I wouldn’t. Yes, you would, because in South Korea, babies are one year old when they are born.
So, is the pregnancy longer or …? No, just count it. Second question: at what point do you become one year older?
Oh, I know this: it’s my birthday. This is on January 1. Everyone across the country is one year old at the same time, on January 1.
I’m lost. Then I better not tell you about the other way of calculating the age in South Korea, where babies are born at zero years of age and become one year older on January 1.
What? Why? Because it’s a tradition, that’s why. As the BBC reported, this discrepancy means that Kim Tae-hyung – also known as the V of the fame of the pop group BTS – is simultaneously 26, 27 and 28 years old, as he was born on December 30, 1995.
This sounds like an omnipotent headache. That is. South Korea is the only country in the world where a newborn baby can be two years old. That is why the country’s newly elected president, Yun Suk Yol, has proposed modernization.
Thank heavens for that. Just don’t expect it to be implemented at all. A similar modernization policy was proposed in 2019 and again last year, but both attempts failed to be enshrined in law.
But why? I know, don’t I? Imagine living in a country that deliberately chooses to ignore basic global logic in order to appease some false, murky eyes, a false memory of tradition and sovereignty.
It’s a lot. However, it seems to me that South Korea has to deal with this. I completely agree. What the country needs now is for a real adult to intervene and take control of the situation. And you know what? I nominate myself.
Why? are you an adult I certainly am. I’m… wait, let me try to figure out that… I was born in… and every January I get one year older… Okay, I’m either six months old or 153.
Say, “South Korea has some really unconventional customs.”
Don’t say, “Says someone who lives in a country that has an official swan census.”
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