You would think that something like calculating a person’s age would be universal and the same in every culture. Turns out, it’s not the case. Just as some cultures calculate in what year they are living differently, Koreans have their own way of determining how old someone is.
A TikTok video explaining it went quite viral, exposing that people living in Western countries weren’t aware of the Korean age system and it’s just interesting how people from different parts of the world have different conceptualizations of the same thing.
More info: TikTok
Turns out, there is more than one way to calculate your age, and two of the countries doing it differently are South Korea and North Korea
Image credits: fgg1031
The TikTok page kaboodaofficial is dedicated to educating people about Korea, teaching them the language, and explaining the curious differences they have, like their age calculation system.
The video that has the most views on the page is the one explaining how Koreans calculate their age. It has 512k views and over 110k likes.
Age is very important in Korean culture as it determines how people will address one another
Image credits: kaboodaofficial
The narrator begins by saying that in Korean culture, age is very important. Often, when you meet Koreans, one of the first questions they ask is your age because they want to establish the hierarchy as there are different ways embedded in the language itself how you address people who are older or younger than you.
The TikTok page kaboodaofficial explains this in the second part of the Korean age series. They immediately say that you never address an older person by name and give examples of how you can address them.
One of the Korean age differences from the international age system is that babies that are just born are considered to be 1 year old
Image credits: kaboodaofficial
And people turn 1 year older not on the day they were born, but on January 1st instead
Image credits: kaboodaofficial
So how is the Korean age system different from the international one? Firstly, when you are born, you’re already 1 year old because Koreans take into consideration the 9 months that a person lived in the womb and round them up to 1 year. Secondly, they consider a person to be 1 year older not on the day they were born, but on January 1st.
So every person in the nation gets older on New Year’s Day. Koreans are aware of the international age and it is actually used in such contexts as courts, hospitals, and public offices. However, in their daily lives, they use Korean age.
Image credits: kaboodaofficial
Because of the Korean age calculation system depending on what time of the year it is, people would be 1 or 2 years older than their actual age
Image credits: kaboodaofficial
If you want to know how old you would be in Korea, kaboodaofficial provides an example. A person born on October 10th, 2010 would be 10 years old now, in September of 2021, because their birthday hasn’t passed yet. But in Korea, that person would be 12 years old (in the video, the narrator made a mistake and addressed it in the comments).
When that person celebrates their birthday, they would be 11 years old in Western countries, but in Korea, they would still be 12 years old. Then they would turn 13 on January 1st.
In the table, there is a formula for how you would know how old you are in Korea. So, if you have already celebrated your birthday, just add 1 to your current age and if your birthday has not yet passed, add 2 to your age.
Image credits: bryan…
In the video below, you can listen to the full explanation
@kaboodaofficial🇰🇷How old are you in Korean age? ##age ##birthday ##todayyearsold ##koreanculture ##korea ##internationalage ##forfun ##education ##foryou ##fyp♬ Stylish Jazz HipHop – Future Oriented Triad
Video credits: kaboodaofficial
The Korean age system is used in both Koreas, and it has been used longer than the two states have been separated
In the comments, people pointed out another way to calculate your Korean age and it may be less confusing
If you are confused just like other people were in the comments when they first found out about Korean age, there is a simpler way to calculate it. Just subtract your birth date from the year we are in and add 1 (since you are already 1 year old at birth).
Also, an interesting fact to know is that this system is used both in South and North Korea as they separated from each other not such a long time ago. The origins of this calculating system are not very clear but it is clear that it goes way back.
It is important to point out that birthdays are also a significant date, it’s just that they turn 1 year older on New Year’s and don’t wait for their birthday
People in the comments had many questions as the Korean age system is so foreign to us. The TikToker explained that even though everyone ages at the same time, birthdays are still celebrated, they just don’t wait for that date to add 1 year.
Even if you are born a few days before New Year’s, when January 1st strikes, you become 2 years old
There were also people giving examples of their own age and the TikToker let them know if they had calculated correctly. Turns out, a baby barely a week old is 2 years old in Korea. Other people just gave up, as they found the math too confusing and complicated.
It can get quite confusing as we are not used to this system and can seem like a task requiring advanced math skills
Have you ever heard of the Korean age system? If it’s your first time hearing about it, do you find it too complicated? Let us know your reactions in the comments! Also, let us know how old would you be in Korea!
If you are 1 at birth and born on December 31st, next day you turn 2? That's two years of your life lost in less than 24 hours!
This is all well explained, but, as someone coming from a Croatian speaking country, living in Korea for over a decade, fluent in Korean, and graduated in linguistics, here is an input from me, that I do not claim to be the truth, but it certainly does make one think. When I first heard the "inclusion of your life inside the belly" explanation, I wasn't satisfied, because pregnancy lasts 9 months on average, not 12. Sure, people in the past probably knew less about medicine and biology, so you may be willing to close an eye on that, but they were no fools either. So, I wonder whether that one is really the reason, or if it was adopted later as some sort of official explanation for the English speaking world, that remained ingrained within culture and the minds of average Koreans. What I really think is going on here has a linguistic basis. In Korea, first of all, we distinguish between, for example, 33살 and 만31새. (Cont.)
The 살 one is what's explained in this article and it's the common colloquial way of expressing one's age. However, the 만x세 one starts from 0 and is birthday based, just like in the international age. Knowing the Korean grammar, that ㄹ ending in the 살 version seems like future tense to me. So maybe - and, again, this is not a claim from me, just a genuine question - that really means not "x years old", but "expected to be x years old" instead? Or "in their xth year of age"? Mathematically speaking, by international standards, when I say I'm 32, it means I've lived 32 years of my life, so technically now I'm living my 33rd year. (Cont.)
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But does that mean no one gets birthday parties? It’s just everyone’s birthday on New Years Eve! Or just special cards and balloons and stuff? “Yay Timmy, here’s your button! Look, ik says I’M STILL 2 TODAY!” Timmy gurgles and poos himself in reply, because that’s really all Timmy can do yet.
They do celebrate the birthdays, don't worry. Also, for legal documents, such as news and such, they count their age just like the rest of the world.
Load More Replies...
One of the main reason why koreans did this it was bc of the infant mortality rate was very high in the old days.. Most people did not have the chance to celebrate their children's first bday (many babies died b4 their 1st bday) 9ms of gestation + the first 100days of life (3ms) = 12ms. To make it easier, ppl just say "you are 1yrs old" when the child is born/turns 3ms old.
I have a Korean son in law and I found it confusing so I just send his birthday gifts along with his Christmas presents he doesn't have Christmas but is so happy when he gets a pair of trainers and then he gets another pair a week later for his birthday I now use the Korean birthday with my daughter I am so proud of him and his culture I have learned a lot from it
I don't know.. Korea is complicated. I live in South Korea. Complicated asf. So elementary school is until 6th grade which is messed up if you ask me also kindergarten is 3 years. SO! first year of kindergarten is 5 years old (we're talking all KA btw) second year is 6 years old, third is 7. When you go into elementary 1st grade is 8, and so on. 6th grade is 13. Another thing to keep in mind, the school year starts in March, not September. Easier way to remember for me ^^
Stupid... I can roll with not starting at age 0, since you have been baking for 9 months before coming out. But age measured in years is par definition the number of trips the earth has taken around the sun since the starting point. Thus born in december, you cannot add a full year before december when earth has been on a full trip around the sun!
Read two Bored Panda articles. One was from an actress who was a wildly huge fan of Harvey Weinstein and even cuddled up to him, literally, until he became a pariah. She tells how she HAD to have an abortion... not about how gee, we have to keep lecherous old men from impregnating teen girls. Then there's this one, telling how Koreans figure babies are already a year old, because they spent nine months in the womb.
If you are 1 at birth and born on December 31st, next day you turn 2? That's two years of your life lost in less than 24 hours!
This is all well explained, but, as someone coming from a Croatian speaking country, living in Korea for over a decade, fluent in Korean, and graduated in linguistics, here is an input from me, that I do not claim to be the truth, but it certainly does make one think. When I first heard the "inclusion of your life inside the belly" explanation, I wasn't satisfied, because pregnancy lasts 9 months on average, not 12. Sure, people in the past probably knew less about medicine and biology, so you may be willing to close an eye on that, but they were no fools either. So, I wonder whether that one is really the reason, or if it was adopted later as some sort of official explanation for the English speaking world, that remained ingrained within culture and the minds of average Koreans. What I really think is going on here has a linguistic basis. In Korea, first of all, we distinguish between, for example, 33살 and 만31새. (Cont.)
The 살 one is what's explained in this article and it's the common colloquial way of expressing one's age. However, the 만x세 one starts from 0 and is birthday based, just like in the international age. Knowing the Korean grammar, that ㄹ ending in the 살 version seems like future tense to me. So maybe - and, again, this is not a claim from me, just a genuine question - that really means not "x years old", but "expected to be x years old" instead? Or "in their xth year of age"? Mathematically speaking, by international standards, when I say I'm 32, it means I've lived 32 years of my life, so technically now I'm living my 33rd year. (Cont.)
Load More Replies... But does that mean no one gets birthday parties? It’s just everyone’s birthday on New Years Eve! Or just special cards and balloons and stuff? “Yay Timmy, here’s your button! Look, ik says I’M STILL 2 TODAY!” Timmy gurgles and poos himself in reply, because that’s really all Timmy can do yet.
They do celebrate the birthdays, don't worry. Also, for legal documents, such as news and such, they count their age just like the rest of the world.
Load More Replies... One of the main reason why koreans did this it was bc of the infant mortality rate was very high in the old days.. Most people did not have the chance to celebrate their children's first bday (many babies died b4 their 1st bday) 9ms of gestation + the first 100days of life (3ms) = 12ms. To make it easier, ppl just say "you are 1yrs old" when the child is born/turns 3ms old.
I have a Korean son in law and I found it confusing so I just send his birthday gifts along with his Christmas presents he doesn't have Christmas but is so happy when he gets a pair of trainers and then he gets another pair a week later for his birthday I now use the Korean birthday with my daughter I am so proud of him and his culture I have learned a lot from it
I don't know.. Korea is complicated. I live in South Korea. Complicated asf. So elementary school is until 6th grade which is messed up if you ask me also kindergarten is 3 years. SO! first year of kindergarten is 5 years old (we're talking all KA btw) second year is 6 years old, third is 7. When you go into elementary 1st grade is 8, and so on. 6th grade is 13. Another thing to keep in mind, the school year starts in March, not September. Easier way to remember for me ^^
Stupid... I can roll with not starting at age 0, since you have been baking for 9 months before coming out. But age measured in years is par definition the number of trips the earth has taken around the sun since the starting point. Thus born in december, you cannot add a full year before december when earth has been on a full trip around the sun!
Read two Bored Panda articles. One was from an actress who was a wildly huge fan of Harvey Weinstein and even cuddled up to him, literally, until he became a pariah. She tells how she HAD to have an abortion... not about how gee, we have to keep lecherous old men from impregnating teen girls. Then there's this one, telling how Koreans figure babies are already a year old, because they spent nine months in the womb.
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