Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
Confusion persists over age counting system shift in Korea
Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul is crowded with visitors on New Year's Day, Monday. Yonhap
By Lee Hae-rin
Age-centered language culture holds back daily use of new age system: expert
A 30-year-old Suwon-based office worker surnamed Choi found it strange not to become a year older even after a New Year started.
“My friends and I said during a New Year's party, 'So here go, we got another year older,’ but we immediately realized that’s not true. We will go on our own ways to grow older on our birthdays from now on,” she said.
Although she agrees the change in the age counting system makes some administrative tasks easier, she still finds it awkward in daily life. Every time someone asks her about her age, she asks back, “In Korean age? Or in Yoon Suk Yeol age?”
Last June, Korea scrapped its traditional age-counting method that considers every person as 1 year old on the day they are born and adds another year to everyone on Jan. 1, regardless of a person’s date of birth.
The change came as President Yoon’s attempt to “reduce social and administrative confusion,” and the new laws on age standardization passed the National Assembly almost unanimously.
Six months have passed since the country endorsed the international standard and made everyone a year or two younger overnight, but confusion still seems to persist in everyday life.
Lee, an 8-year-old student based in Seoul, is also confused with why everybody didn’t grow a year older together like they did in the past every time the calendar hit the New Year.
He once told his classmates he turned 7 after the new age system took effect last year, as taught by his parents. Then some of his friends claimed he should call them “hyeong” and “nuna,” casual honorific Korean terms used to call older male or female friends, so he decided to act like an 8-year-old while hanging out with his friends, according to his mother.
The persisting confusion is due to language, according to Shin Ji-young, a professor of Korean language and literature at Korea University.
Korean language is one of the few languages in the world that uses appellation instead of second-person pronouns to highlight politeness toward a listener, and the age gap between a speaker and a listener has been one of the key factors determining the form of address, the linguist explained.
That is why Koreans had maintained the traditional age counting system to add a year to one's age on New Year’s Day to keep the age differences among people the same throughout the year, she said.
“For example, let’s say one was born on March 1 and another was born on May 1 of the same year. If the two meet on Feb. 28 in Korea, they would be friends and say to each other ‘hey.’ However, two days later, their ages would be different and the one born in May would have to call another ‘hyeong,’ ‘oppa’ or another title,” she said, highlighting the importance of age in Korean society.
Although the new system seems yet unsettled in daily life, 88 percent of Koreans view it positively, according to the Ministry of Government Legislation’s latest survey revealed last week. Many believe the new system could spur equality.
Shin agreed, explaining that the age-centered language culture grew prevalent only after the abolishment of slavery in the late 19th century. The new age system could make room for Koreans to question existing hierarchies, discuss equality and eventually bring changes to everyday language use, she said.