Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Isehtis]

Okay, the Korean/Western age thing has confused me since day one.

Have I finally got it right?

Koreans measure from the time of conception rather than the time of birth, but they count 10 months instead of 9? :s

[kprrok]

Yes, that's part of it.

A Westerner's age says how many years of life have been completed.

A Korean's age (from conception) says what year of life they are currently in.

Thus, a 30-year old American has completed 30 years since their birth.

A 30-year old Korean is in his 30th calendar year since their conception.

[Privateer]

Korean age explained:

Start at birth aged 1.
Advance to the next age with the turn of each year, lockstep with everyone else.

[northway]

[murmanjake]

About four hours later...

[Privateer]

[machinoman]

i have just been told by a korean that being born they are 0 as per international age, but that two months later they are one, as per the OP's theory... now i am very confused

[murmanjake]

7 hrs later....

[redaxe]

[hellofaniceguy]

Oh gesh.....unreal...anyway....
look at any koreans passport or birth certificate.....it has ONE date...the date that they were born...not conception!

[Binch Lover]

Maybe a couple of examples would help:

Baby A - born June 1st 2010 is currently 1 year old
Baby B - born November 1st 2010 is also currently 1 year old

(Babies are described as being 1 when they are born.)

On January 1st, both Baby A and Baby B will turn 2. From that point on, their age will always change on January 1st, meaning that their age will always be the same number. This is because they were born in the same year. Therefore, everyone who is born in the same year is the same age.

Currently (2010), everyone who was born in 1991 is 20. Everyone who was born in 1981 is 30. On January 1st, 2011, the former will turn 21 and the latter will turn 31.

Easy way to calculate your Korean age:

Korean Age = (Current Year - Year of Birth) + 1



To complicate things (as one poster mentioned), some people still consider the age change to occur on the Lunar New Year, whilst most now consider it to be on January 1st.

Also, people celebrate their birthday on the actual day of birth but don't consider themselves to have changed age. The amount of candles on the cake is the same as the age they have been since January 1st (or Lunar New Year) of that year.

[samd]

The vast majority of people use the system explained directly above by Binch Lover.

Those that use the Lunar Calendar usually have ulterior motives, ie. A guy is born in January, so he says that he is born in the previous year so he can be a year older than everyone else in his Solar Calendar birth year, and reap the rewards of said seniority socially.

Eg. I'm born in Sept 2001, so I'm 10 years old. My friend is born in January 2001, so he can call Lunar Calendar and claim to be 11 years old, and take all my toys.

[vDroop]

It's inaccurate as hell, but it's really not that complicated. There's no consideration of conception or time spent in the womb at all. Koreans who tell you this are mistaken, or they have no way to explain it or translate the system in English.

kprrok explained it best. They count the number of calendar years they have seen as their age.

I have a child here. For babies, they don't refer to them as 1 year old when they are born. They use months like the west. And month 1 is from birth. Ask any Korean mother carrying a newborn how old her baby is. None of them will ever claim the child is one.

[Joe Boxer]

I've heard of three different birthdays here:

1. Solar birthday (like in other countries).
2. Lunar birthday (maybe four-to-six weeks different from the solar one).
3. Automatic January 1st birthday (I think this one is for kids, but I'm not sure).

[murmanjake]

So the difference between...

He's in his third year.

He's three years old.