South Koreans Become Younger Under New Age-Counting Law (bbc.com) 52
South Koreans have become a year or two younger as a new law aligns the nation's two traditional age-counting methods with international standards. The BBC reports: The law scraps one traditional system that deemed South Koreans one year old at birth, counting time in the womb. Another counted everyone as aging by a year every first day of January instead of on their birthdays. The switch to age-counting based on birth date took effect on Wednesday. President Yoon Suk Yeol pushed strongly for the change when he ran for office last year. The traditional age-counting methods created "unnecessary social and economic costs," he said. For instance, disputes have arisen over insurance pay-outs and determining eligibility for government assistance programs.
Previously, the most widely used calculation method in Korea was the centuries-old "Korean age" system, in which a person turns one at birth and gains a year on 1 January. This means a baby born on December 31 will be two years old the next day. A separate "counting age" system, that was also traditionally used in the country, considers a person zero at birth and adds a year on January 1. This means that, for example, as of June 28, 2023, a person born on June 29, 2003 is 19 under the international system, 20 under the "counting age" system and 21 under the "Korean age" system.
Lawmakers voted to scrap the traditional counting methods last December. Despite the move, many existing statutes that count a person's age based on the "counting age" calendar year system will remain. For example, South Koreans can buy cigarettes and alcohol from the year -- not the day -- they turn 19. [...] The traditional age-counting methods were also used by other East Asian countries, but most have dropped it. Japan adopted the international standard in 1950 while North Korea followed suit in the 1980s.
Previously, the most widely used calculation method in Korea was the centuries-old "Korean age" system, in which a person turns one at birth and gains a year on 1 January. This means a baby born on December 31 will be two years old the next day. A separate "counting age" system, that was also traditionally used in the country, considers a person zero at birth and adds a year on January 1. This means that, for example, as of June 28, 2023, a person born on June 29, 2003 is 19 under the international system, 20 under the "counting age" system and 21 under the "Korean age" system.
Lawmakers voted to scrap the traditional counting methods last December. Despite the move, many existing statutes that count a person's age based on the "counting age" calendar year system will remain. For example, South Koreans can buy cigarettes and alcohol from the year -- not the day -- they turn 19. [...] The traditional age-counting methods were also used by other East Asian countries, but most have dropped it. Japan adopted the international standard in 1950 while North Korea followed suit in the 1980s.
all race horses have an age system like that so pe (Score:2)
all race horses have an age system like that so how did people become that way?
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You forgot the part that explains why anyone is supposed to give a shit about your personal vendetta against some goofball equally few people give a fuck about.
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You're shoving this crap right in my face, moron. It is my business. Go play with something poisonous or do something else that's more meaningful than litter the board with your worthless existence.
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How old are you at 6 months? You are in your first year.
You are 0 years old. You haven't been born for a year.
On your first birthday you will be 1 year old. You will start your second year, but nobody cares about that as that's not what were counting.
We are counting how many years after someone has been born. It's quite simple.
Also
Jesus is a fairy tale. Even if it was based on a real person. Nobody knows when that person was born either
The date of birth of Jesus is not stated in the gospels or in any historical sources, but most biblical scholars generally accept a date of birth between 6 BC and 4 BC, the year in which King Herod died.
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We are
Right, we are. But they weren't. And that's why it's confusing for you but it's not that hard to understand.
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Oh man, I'm getting nostalgic now. We haven't had a good argument over how much time has passed since the millennium, exactly 1999 years after the somewhat arbitrary start date of our calendar.
Re: all race horses have an age system like that s (Score:2)
And obviously not related to the time Jesus was born. With best estimates 4 BC to 9 BC.
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The problem is that the calendar start at 0001/01/1, so after one year has elapsed from the beginning it's 0002/01/01. Therefore 1000 years have elapsed by 1001/01/01.
Thanks for playing, I do miss this.
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It is quite sad to see countries giving up their traditions for some globalised norm.
Don't worry! We'll never give up degrees Fahrenheit or gridiron football.
Re:The Great Homogenisation of the world (Score:5, Insightful)
Society changes. Think about the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Egyptians, the Visigoths, the Huns, etc.
People have been living on the Korean peninsula since 8000 BC and plenty of cultures, dynasties, and social groups have come and gone during that time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Romanticizing the past always seems better than accepting the problems of today. I'm sure if you went back to the Victorian times, or the middle ages, the average person would NOT consider them the "Golden Age" you seem to think they were.
I'm sure you would enjoy going to New York's Central Park and riding a hansom cab around the loop, but that doesn't mean the 1800s were all that great for the average citizen either.
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You are conflating the inevitable change that comes with time, with the inevitable change that comes with globalization. I believe the OP is referring to the second.
Yes, change is necessary and always welcome, but when you go to France but hear no French, there is an undeniable loss. And before you label me as some sort of anti-diversity racist, I am North African, and I hate how visiting France feels more and more like visiting home every year.
Identities are slowly eroding, and humanity's becoming one glob
Re:The Great Homogenisation of the world (Score:5, Insightful)
Globalization is something that has been going on for many centuries. It is accelerating due to the pace that information travels. If you go back long enough, people 50 miles apart would have their own entirely different dialect of language. The spread of domesticated horses changed that. Even 150 years ago there were already undersea telegraph cables spreading information globally in less than a day.
Consolidated global corporations are an entirely separate problem that arises out of it. Though Netflix has been doing well producing local content for various countries they operate out of and exporting that to the rest of the world rather than just pushing US-centric content.
Re: The Great Homogenisation of the world (Score:2)
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-- Peter De Vries
Re:The Great Homogenisation of the world (Score:5, Insightful)
Or even today, with lots of people wanting to go back to the "Good Old Days" which is typically the 1950s. Of course, you already know who those people are - their rough age, their skin color and race and such. Because only those people had a "good" 1950s. The 1950s for everyone else was terrible with discrimination, racism, and every other -ism around and the effects of many of them (e.g., redlining) are still seen today.
Heck, everyone even forgets how bad medical care was back in the 50s - the 20th century made a lot of advances, but a lot of those came at the back end.
And sure, when I fire up a retro computer, I sometimes wish I was back in the 80s and 90s when those machines were at their heyday, but then realistically, I also know it's a flight of fancy - having lived through the 80s and 90s, I know how it felt because the whiz-bang fancy new computers (Amiga! Fully Loaded PC!) etc were out of reach of most people and everyone looked at you funny for wanting a sound card. And having to beg to go to the computer store for games and beg to get software.
Amazing to think the PC on my desk can emulate the PC of my dreams, and instead of begging to buy some game at the store, I can often buy the game today for a few bucks with my own money, or it's available online at one of the many repositories.
And that's where the romance ends and I realize today my life is vastly better now than it was back then.
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Because only those people had a "good" 1950s.
It honestly wasn't that great even for them.
My theory is what they're actually nostalgic for is the 1950s that was represented in 1950s TV shows, and in later decades' TV shows set in the 1950s. It has very little in common with the actual 1950s, in fact less than TV of later decades had in common with reality in later decades. But it's an appealingly sweet view of life, so it's easy to see why people might long for it. Fiction can be very nice that way.
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This way of counting age is actually an East Asian thing, not just Korean. The Japanese used to count age this way too. It's just that the Koreans have been the slowest in giving it up.
Re:The Great Homogenisation of the world (Score:5, Informative)
It is quite sad to see countries giving up their traditions for some globalised norm. This is only a small example but entire languages have been lost this way. I don't see any great benefit to it either
An inconsistent age counting system doesn't count as "culture" or "tradition". It has no deep spiritual, social or historical meaning -- it's a quirk, nothing more.
Went on a trip to Morocco there recently
Oh yeah? Well I was in Korea last week and had this system explained to me by someone who's lived there their whole life. Koreans, especially the younger generations, have already been using the international system for a long time.... they celebrate birthdays on the day of birth! This law change (which is widely supported, even by people who don't support the current government) is specifically about ensuring that legal and government documents use the same system that people use in their everyday life. Having two systems always created problems.
Re:The Great Homogenisation of the world (Score:4, Informative)
This one carries with it the implicit implication that a baby in mother's womb is a human being going through the first year of his life
No, it does not. Because it starts counting at one (first year) AT BIRTH. If you are conceived in fall and born in summer, you are one and not two. But if you are born on December 31st, you are one and then the next day you are two. The system has nothing to do with anything but the year you were born in.
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This one carries with it the implicit implication that a baby in mother's womb is a human being going through the first year of his life
No, it does not. Because it starts counting at one (first year) AT BIRTH. If you are conceived in fall and born in summer, you are one and not two. But if you are born on December 31st, you are one and then the next day you are two. The system has nothing to do with anything but the year you were born in.
Not exactly, there were two systems, FTA:
Previously, the most widely used calculation method in Korea was the centuries-old "Korean age" system, in which a person turns one at birth and gains a year on 1 January. This means a baby born on 31 December will be two years old the next day.
A separate "counting age" system, that was also traditionally used in the country, considers a person zero at birth and adds a year on 1 January.
Though I don't think it's quite correct to consider the first system as "countin
Re:The Great Homogenisation of the world (Score:5, Informative)
It is quite sad to see countries giving up their traditions for some globalised norm.
This is not some national defining tradition and it's not remotely sad to see go. It is absolutely nothing like losing a language.
Now if South Korea had a system which wasn't based on age, or used a completely different calendar then you'd be on to something. But as it stands it was nothing more than an incompatible definition which caused problems in a global context.
I wish there could be at least one country completely immune and unscathed by this shit
What shit? It sounds like what you want is a time machine, or a country to be stopped from progress, stuck without developing or changing. McDonalds and hotel chains didn't magic into existence. They were a product of development and modernisation by a society that advanced themselves. If America didn't exist, there's no reason to believe that Visa and McDonalds wouldn't exist now (though probably with different names).
What you see as traditional other's see as being held back. My great grandpa once walked 2 days to go buy some horses. Why? Because he didn't want to walk. 50 years later he was one of the first in the village to buy a car. He wasn't walking / on that horse because he loved traditional, he did it because it was the best that was available to him.
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It is quite sad to see countries giving up their traditions for some globalised norm. This is only a small example but entire languages have been lost this way. I don't see any great benefit to it either
You must live in your own bubble if you cannot see why standardizing age counting (and generally having standards) benefits everything from insurance, commerce to education and the law, generally everything that is related to age. If Koreans like the old counting method, they can keep using it with but just don't call it "age" in English, it creates confusion for everyone else.
Similarly, Chinese have their own calendar and own new year day, but they won't use it when communicating in situation that might c
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Having a consistent way of defining age is very important. When does someone legally become an adult? When do they qualify for a pension? When does a child start school? Starting a year earlier or later makes a huge difference when that year is 1/4th of their entire lifetime.
When travelling internationally there is already a standard for passports.
China has the same thing, age can be counted from conception and a baby can be considered 1 year old at birth. They have a separate date of birth that is used for
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I don't see any great benefit to it either
That is because you do not understand that communication and efficiency does matter.
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Djellabas
Is that what those are called? That explains Terry Pratchett's fictional location of Djelibeybi finally.
Anyway, they picked up these traditions from the western world because they liked them. I don't feel bad for eating pizza or spaghetti in the US even though my ancestors are mostly British and German. The other side of this is that globalization lets us enjoy a bit of Morocco too. They keep their identity but their identity is influenced by new ideas. Imagine Britain without tea (an import from China
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I wish there could be at least one country completely immune and unscathed by this shit
Said country soon to be invaded by McDonald's, Starbucks, and Freedom!
Okay, next ... (Score:2)
Array first/last indexes [wikipedia.org].
I Am Willing to Bet That... (Score:2)
Previously, the most widely used calculation method in Korea was the centuries-old "Korean age" system, in which a person turns one at birth and gains a year on 1 January.
I am willing to bet that aging everyone on **January 1** is not centuries-old.
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Do you think nobody tracked the positions of the moon, stars, and planets except Europeans? Most people around the world had a fairly accurate calendar system starting at least centuries ago. Even the Julian calendar which the Gregorian calendar replaced in Western culture had the year at 365.25 days - which was pretty close.
Even the most primitive societies figure out the lunar cycle and day/night and how many of those there are between winters. Everything since has only been slight tweaks on accuracy a
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You just lost your bet. Starting the year around the winter solstice is an Asian tradition that is, if anything, older than the practice in the West.
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Previously, the most widely used calculation method in Korea was the centuries-old "Korean age" system, in which a person turns one at birth and gains a year on 1 January.
I am willing to bet that aging everyone on **January 1** is not centuries-old.
You just lost your bet. Starting the year around the winter solstice is an Asian tradition that is, if anything, older than the practice in the West.
Winter solstice isn't January 1 though.
Chinese New Year is based on a lunar calendar and is at least 20 days after January 1.
The first day of Chinese New Year begins on the new moon that appears between 21 January and 20 February.
Korean age reckoning began by using the Chinese system but changed to calculating ages using January 1st as the New Year with their adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1896. [wikipedia.org]
So a century. Not centuries. Before that they used Lunar/Chinese New Year.
It'll work out better for bar/nightclub security (Score:2)
Something new to add... (Score:2)
...to the list of incorrect assumptions programmers make about dates, ages, etc.
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