#korean age

[easykorean]

Everyone is one year younger in Korea.

As of 6/28/2023, everyone is one year younger in South Korea. South Korean age system change. And some vocabulary: Easy to Learn Korean 1563 – Birthdays.

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[koreanstudyjunkie]

🇰🇷KOREAN CULTURE FACTS🇰🇷

that you may not have heard of before

Kimchi is life – quite literally

Back in the days, when Koreans were poor and winters were long, there was not much choice for Koreans but to ferment cabbage to be able to survive. In essence, this is how Kimchi was born.

This tradition is so deep-rooted in the Korean history and character that today you’d have a hard time going to a restaurant and not having any Kimchi. It is always served as a side dish—no matter where you’re at. Quite logical, then, that Koreans also say ‘Kimchi’ instead of ‘Cheese’ when taking photographs.

Love motels are all around

Something of a rather unusual concept for many Westerners, love motels are big business in Korea. Love what?

Love motels, which include rooms for several hours or one night, mostly designed for one very reason. They range from budget to luxury, from basic to kinky. And why all that? Most young Korean live either in a dorm or with their parents until way past their student time. So, this is not (only) meant for hookups. Quite the opposite: many couples book a nice room for their date nights in advance!

Koreans got their president impeached with a non-violent mass protest

Caused by many issues such as the lack of taking responsibility for the Sewol ferry disaster as well as corruption, back in 2016/2017, millions of Koreans took to the street to protest against their president (on a side note: this president was Park Geun-Hye, quite interestingly the daughter of the aforementioned, alleged dictator leader of Korea in the 60s and 70s).

Their weapons? Candles! A mass protest without any violence or uproar (for reasons, see 12) but with something much more important instead: success. They were so ubiquitous in the media that they lead the assembly to impeach Park, who is now serving a 24-year sentence for a number of crimes.

Koreans will always be a year older than you

Well at least if you both count in your native way. The difference is that in Korea, everyone is already one year old at birth.

And not only that: on New Year’s, everyone simultaneously turns a year older! That means, in turn, that in Korean age, you could already be two years older than you are in an international age.

Drink Like a Boss

Drinking with the boss and a whole lot of colleagues is a mandatory tradition in South Korea. That can happen any day at the boss’s will or caprice, the employees are basically not allowed to say no, and are mostly forced to drink at the boss’s command.

The new anti-bully law is expected to root out so-called gapjil in the workplace in South Korea, “Gapjil” a recently coined word refers to abusive acts by people in positions of power or those under their influence.

[jojal-jojalkorean]

Korean Age

There are 3 kinds of ages in Korea

(Korean) Seneun-nai(세는나이), man-nai(만 나이), yeon-nai(연 나이)

Seneun-nai is broadly used in everyday life in Korea. In seneun-nai, you are 1 year old the day you are born and 1 year older with every year that passes.

Man-nai is the internationally used age system. You are 0 years old when born and age as years pass. It is the age system you(non-Korean) are familiar with.

Yeon-nai is used in Korean government offices. Yeon-nai is calculated by subtracting your year of birth from the current year. By law, men have to receive medical exam for the military at the yeon-nai of 19.

To make the concepts more clearer if you were born on July, 2002, and if it is March 2020, then

Your Seneun-nai is 1+17=18

Your Man-nai is 0+17=17

Your Yeon-nai is 2020-2002=18

On September 2020, 

Your Seneun-nai is 1+18=19

Your Man-nai is 0+18=18

Your Yeon-nai is 2020-2002=18

Korea has been legally using man-nai since 1962 but seneun-nai is still used often in daily life. 

Seneun-nai was an age counting method in East Asian culture including China, Korea and Japan.

Some say it is because there was no “zero(0)” in East Asian numerical system and some say it is because you were born the moment you were conceived in your mother’s womb. Japan stopped  using seneun-nai in 1902 and so did China since the 70’s but Korea still uses the system despite movements by NGOs to use man-nai in the 70’s. .

The legal age is your man-nai in korea. Man comes from the Chinese character that means some date or time is full. 

So be careful, if you say you are 19 years old, Koreans might think you are a high school third grade student.

Written by Admin Hyun

Edited by Admin Yu

[crazyfanofmassculture]

Now 40....

[dreamsafterhours]

🇰🇷 explaining the korean age system!

AIGHT so a lot of non-koreans (and sometimes even overseas koreans) get confused by this and i don’t blame you, it’s a pretty unique concept to grasp. it’s not used anywhere else in the world. why and how it came to be i honestly can’t tell you BUT allow me to explain how it works!

we’ll start by following the example of a newborn child.

say that the child is conceived in april and then born in december in the year 2000. the moment the child is born they are automatically considered one year old; this is acknowledge that 2000 is the first year in which they exist in the living world.

so, in december 2000; the child is one. but guess what happens on the 1st of january, 2001?

following the idea that 2000 was their first year of existence, 2001 would mean that they have existed across the span of two years as opposed to having spent two years out of the womb.

furthermore, an important and widely practised concept during pregnancy is that of prenatal education (태교; taegyo) that the mother will undertake, and the 9 months of this is thought to count to the child’s age; so in a way, the raising of the child starts from before the actual birth.

therefore when the child is born, the 9 months of taegyo will equate to almost a year of existing, and thus the child is considered a year old from birth.

what happens on the 1st of january of every year? everyone adds a year to their ‘age’.

so yes, it does mean that for a child born on the 31st of december in 2000, they would technically add another year on the day after their birth! but as soon as a child is born on the 1st of january 2001, they are considered a year younger than the december baby born just days earlier than them purely because they were born after 2001 officially began.

by this notion that everyone adds a year to their age on the 1st of jan, a tradition is upheld in which we eat rice cake soup (떡국; tteokguk) on the new year’s day in order to symbolically “gain” a year of age.

now, given that everyone turns a year older on the same day, then what’s the point of birthdays?

well. birthdays are purely celebrated as the day one was born, and not as a day on which one turns a year older. sure, birthday parties are very common, just not so much “i turned __ today!” type significant as it is internationally.

so then what can people do when they turn 20 in korea?

the legal age in korea is 20 years (in korean age, of course) and would equate internationally to the year in which a young adult turns 19 years old, and because of this, new year’s day is a popular day for newly turned adults to legally buy their first alcoholic drinks or watch 19+ rated movies in the cinemas! (this scene in goblin shows euntak turning 20 as soon as the new year begins at 00:00, and she asks the goblin to take her out for drinks.)

this year (2020) was the year in which people born in 2001 turned into adults. next year it’ll be the ‘02 liners, then in 2022 the ‘03 liners, and so on. from an international perspective, you can think of it as the people turning 19 years old international age become legal in korea as ‘20-year-olds’. again, it’s assuming that 2020 is the 20th year in which they have existed.

given that there is a law restricting the labour of minors under the korean age of 20, you will notice that idols under the age of 20 will not be allowed to take part in promotions from 10 pm to 6 am until they become of age.

this part in the dancer (ft. nct’s jisung, an ‘02 liner) shows jisung having to “go to bed” because it was almost 10 pm.

when they turn 20, however, idols can then take part in activities past 10 pm and before 6 am! this entire vlive broadcast was dedicated to the nct 00 line for becoming adults and being able to film past 10 pm (or click here for the highlights instead) :D

on a side note, young adults are eligible to take part in voting for elections at 18 years international age. this is why nct’s jisung (‘02 liner, not yet legal per se but still eligible to vote) posted a photo to commemorate his first vote this year alongside jaemin and jeno!

a simple way to convert ages

when someone from korea tells me their age (as a korean living overseas, i tend to be more used to international ages, so when i want to understand it in terms of international age when given a korean age, this is how i calculate it:

eg. when the person says they are 21 years old in korean age, i automatically subtract 1 so i can safely assume that they are turning 20 that year or have already turned 20 (as their birthday could have passed by the time we have that conversation) internationally.

i hope this was somewhat helpful to wrap your head around the korean age system! i’ll be posting more about korean social systems so chuck me a follow for more and written nct content! in the meantime, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a reply or reblog! ♡

[btsbrisus]

I can’t stop thinking about how as of right now, Jungkook is considered 3 years older than me if we go by our respective countries’ standards, but he was born 9 months before me?

[chloe---e]

Traditional food 🍲

New Year's food 떡만둣국

Korea grows old together on New Year's Day.

My family is 36 years old, 33 years old and 5 years old by Korean age, but by common age in the world, we will be 32 years old, 30 years old, and 3 years old. 😂🤣😂🤣

[dailydoseofkorea]

Korean Age Pt. 1

Korean age seems really confusing to people who don’t know it. Why is a baby born 1 years old? Why the heck does a baby born on the 31st of December turn 2 the next day? Wouldn’t it be unfair for the baby born on the 31st of December? These three questions, well more the second one, sounds completely what the heck material. So let me explain to you as to why we have the ‘Korean age’

To be honest with you, I don’t know why we have the Korean age system, nor do my parents, or my grandparents. So I’ll just explain the theory and how it works :D

 In Korea, when you are born, you are 1 years old. You also get 1 year older on New Years, which is why that baby born on the 31st of December turns 2 the next day. This is why the rice cake soup is called the ‘aging dish’ or the dish that middle aged people jokingly say that they don’t want to eat because then they’ll age one year (you’ll need to read the Korean Culture- Dining post to understand that).

This makes everyone born the same year as you the same age as you; thus, for age-related business they are your “friend” (친구). Friend, here, means that they are the same age as you (동갑). Generally, that means you don’t need to use honorifics, so you use banmal (반말) to all of your friends. But for those who can legally drink, just a heads up that drunken fights have broken out over age but a difference of birth month. But, for most sober occasions, you can just assume anyone born the same year as you is your dong-gap (동갑) and your friend.

 No “cut-off” dates for school years, and everyone in your grade is your age, for the most part. This has gaping loophole, but generally, in a certain school grade, almost everyone is the same age. Therefore, everyone in the same school grade are friends (친구들) and there is no age-related hierarchy within the class. The Korean school year starts in February, so everyone also, generally, stays the same age for one whole school year, as well.

  Now for the loophole. There are a tricky “fast births” who are born usually in the first two (or three) months of a year. These fast births can sometimes sneak into the grade ahead of them, because they were born before (or at least around) the start of the school year in February in Korea; and they were born dangerously close to the year before. Some fast births will even say they’re the year older than everyone else in their year. For example, if someone is born January 3, 1990, instead of saying they’re 26, they will say they are 27, or that they are a “fast 1990.” (빠른 90), and here starts the age dominance over all not-fast 1990ers. They may call someone who was born in 1989 their friend (친구) and have the benefits of age-closeness with all 1989ers. In this aspect, a fast birth is a somewhat lucky happening.

Fast birth status is usually only granted to people born in January or February, but I know a few early March birthdays will claim to be fast births...