South Koreans become younger overnight after country scraps 'Korean age' | CNN

3 years ago by withersailor to c/worldnews

More than 51 million people in South Korea awoke on Wednesday to find themselves a year or two younger – at least, according to the law.

cosmicsploogedrizzle 30 points 3 years ago

A baby born on Dec 31st is 1 year old, and the next day would be 2 years old ... A 2 day old baby would be considered 2 years old. Glad they decided that this was beyond odd.

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dotancohen 5 points 3 years ago

My daughter was born at 22:30 on December 31. In Korea she would have been considered 2 years old when she was born less than 2 hours previously.

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lemmein 1 point 3 years ago

Ehh, I'm sad that another country is being forced to Western standards and lose an unique part of their culture.

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HenriVolney 19 points 3 years ago

Too bad they didn't keep their very own system of measurement which is so much more convenient than the internationally recognized and simple system... Not looking in anybody's direction

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Augapfel 6 points 3 years ago

babies are considered a year old on the day they’re born

Is there any useful idea behind this? That sounds completely dumb.

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troyunrau 28 points 3 years ago

It's just semantics. When you are born, you are in your first year of life, not your zeroth year of life. After a full year, you are one year old. Grammar varies from language to language, and sometimes one feels more natural.

Imagine everyone in English said "I'm in my 32nd year" instead of "I'm 31 years old." Now you meet a foreigner who says the opposite. Translation issues abound!

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bionicjoey 6 points 3 years ago

To be fair, we do the same shit with what century we are in.

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troyunrau 2 points 3 years ago

You're absolutely right. But as most people don't measure their age in centuries (yet), it isn't a problem.

I'm hoping the debate emerges when I'm in my 7th century.

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bionicjoey 0 points 3 years ago