this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023
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I actually don't get how this works, and I lived in South Korea for a year. I get that your age increases on New Year's Day, but how can you be any more than a year older than your "international age"?
They count the time you are in the womb as one year. So you're already one year old when you are born.
I've seen no evidence of counting time in the womb. I have seen lots of non-Koreans spreading the belief around.
What happens is the moment you are born you are 1 in Old Korea Counting (OKC). 0 international.
On January 1 you are 2 in OKC and 0 international.
On your 1st birthday you are 2 in OKC and 1 international.
On the next January 1 you are 3 OKC and 1 international.
And so forth.
Source: 2 decades in Korea, Korean spouse who is happy to be younger, and a Korean child who is very disappointed to be younger. When our child was born we didn't say they were 9 months (OKC), they were 1(OKC).
It has been explained to me as "counting the years you have been alive during".
It is a widely held believe in Korea. Implying that foreigners are spreading it for no reason seems ignorant at best, disingenuous at worst.
Although afaik there is no clear evidence and the exact reason is unknown.
Sorry if it's a silly question, but if a child is born on december 31 just a minute before the new year, could he be 2 before the mother gets to hold him then?
This would have been the case in the past, yes. But now they changed to the international system.
Yup.
That’s what it sounds like to me…
Let's say the office worker who is 27 internationally today was born in December 1995. He was 1 at his birth, turned 2 in January 1996 (Korean age). In January 2023 he turned 29 and will turn 30 in January 2024, but internationally he'll turn 28 in December 2023.