South Koreans set to turn into youthful as conventional means of counting age scrapped

South Korea, on Thursday, handed legal guidelines that might scrap Korea’s conventional methodology of counting ages and undertake the worldwide customary.

Seoul,UPDATED: Dec 9, 2022 14:28 IST

Students and their relations stroll in entrance of an examination corridor forward of the annual school entrance examinations in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo: Reuters)

By Reuters: South Korea on Thursday handed legal guidelines to scrap its conventional methodology of counting ages and undertake the worldwide customary – a shift which is able to make its residents both 1 or 2 years youthful on official paperwork.

Koreans are deemed to be a yr outdated when born and a yr is added each Jan. 1. This is the age mostly cited in on a regular basis life.

A separate system additionally exists for conscription functions or calculating the authorized age to drink alcohol and smoke, wherein an individual’s age is calculated from zero at beginning and a yr is added on Jan. 1.

Since the early Sixties, nonetheless, South Korea has for medical and authorized paperwork additionally used the worldwide norm of calculating from zero at beginning and including a yr on each birthday.

The complicated array of techniques will disappear – at the least on official paperwork – when the brand new legal guidelines that stipulate utilizing solely the worldwide methodology of counting ages take impact in June 2023.

“The revision is aimed at reducing unnecessary socio-economic costs because legal and social disputes as well as confusion persist due to the different ways of calculating age,” Yoo Sang-bum of the ruling People Power Party informed parliament.

Jeong Da-eun, a 29-year-old workplace employee, is pleased in regards to the change, saying she has at all times needed to suppose twice when requested abroad about her age.

“I remember foreigners looking at me with puzzlement because it took me so long to come back with an answer on how old I was.”

“Who wouldn’t welcome getting a year or two younger?” she added.

Posted By:

Manisha Pandey

Published On:

Dec 9, 2022