Beijing time:2022-12-09 11:36
[NTD Times, Beijing, December 09, 2022]South Korea has passed a series of bills to abolish several old age calculation methods and uniformly adopt international common algorithms. This will make Koreans 1 or 2 years younger than they are now.
Agence France-Presse reported that the current calculation method is the so-called “Korean age”, which sets the age at birth as 1 year old, and then adds 1 year old every January 1, instead of waiting until the birthday to add 1 year old.
However, the South Korean National Assembly passed a bill yesterday requiring that the age on official documents must be calculated in an internationally accepted way, and it will be implemented in June next year.
In a statement, Congress said the decision was made to “address social confusion and the side effects that have arisen from the mixed use of age calculations.”
In addition to the “Korean age” calculation method, South Korea has another age calculation method mainly used to determine whether it is legal to drink and smoke. It is calculated from 0 years old after birth, and then increases by 1 every January 1. age.
South Korea has also used the same international age calculation method for medical and legal records since 1960.
Taking a person born on December 31, 1992 as an example, by December 9, 2022, according to the international customary calculation method, his age will be 29 years old, and if calculated according to the Korean method of judging whether he can legally drink alcohol, he will be 30 years old. Using the “Korean age” algorithm, he is 31 years old.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yue has been pushing for this reform, so as to save administrative and social expenses caused by different ways of calculating age.
There are some Koreans who are happy about it. “I’m going to be two years younger, so happy,” one South Korean tweeted.
“I was born in December, so I was 2 shortly after I was born. Finally, I can go back to my real age.”
(Reposted from Central News Agency/Responsible editor: Xia Mingyi)
URL of this article: https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2022/12/09/a103594309.html