About the Korean age thing

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

After looking at this thread and seeing Astroboy’s reference to the fact that Koreans are considered a year old when they are born, I just wanted to explain my understanding of the Korean age system.

When a Korean tells you his age, he’s not really telling you how many years it’s been since he was born, but rather the number of years in which he’s been alive. The year a baby is born is his first year. As soon as the next year starts then that’s his second year.

A baby born in November of 1980 is 1 in 1980, and then in January of 1981 he’s 2. This is not really as confusing as it sounds because you don’t ask, “How old is the baby?” you ask “How many months old is the baby?” and they will tell you.

Koreans celebrate their birthdays but they don’t get older on their birthdays. Everyone’s age goes up with the turning of the year, traditionally with the eating of rice-cake soup for the lunar new year. Eating dduk guk is eating another year of age. (Although not eating it doesn’t help keep you younger, apparently). The time between the Western new year and the lunar new year is a little hazy. I knew a girl who was born in January and counted herself part of the previous year, since the next year hadn’t started yet by the lunar calendar.

To figure out how old you are by the Korean system, add one to your age if you’ve had your birthday this year, and add two if you haven’t.

2

Yep that is exactly how a Korean friend of mine explained it.

3

That sounds pretty much correct… still confuses the heck out of me, though!

4

Sooo, it’s like the system in the book the Giver, except that they don’t celebrate their actual birthdays in the aforementioned book.

5

This is sort of like the whole, “When is the real millenium,” thing, right? Koreans tell you what year they are in, while Americans tell you how many whole years it has been since they were born. I am 22 and a few months old, but I am in my 23 year.

So Koreans measure a person’s age the same way the Romen calender actually measures the year, while Americans measure a person’s age the way everyone thought the Romen calender measures the year. Hence, everyone celebrates the new millenium on Jan 1, 2000, when the actual millenium began Jan 1, 2001.

Make sense to me, but I doubt my explanation makes it all that clearer to the rest of you. :slight_smile:

6

In the FWIW category:

  1. It’s “Roman,” not “Romen.”

  2. When I lived in Seoul back in 1978, age when referred to in casual conversation was determined based on the traditional method described above (one year old at birth, etc.), but the government based age on the calendar alone (i.e., 0 years at birth, 1 year old at 1st birthday anniversary, 2 years old at 2nd birthday anniversary, etc.).