East Asian Age Reckoning
Welcome back to This Too Shall Passed, I'm hoping to get back to these fortnightly episodes. In this one I'll discuss something that has recently changed in Korea, age reckoning.
Sources:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-28/south-koreas-become-one-year-younger/102536790
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/28/south-koreans-become-a-year-or-two-younger-as-country-changes-system-for-counting-ages
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-63903771
Transcript:
I was originally going to do this mini-episode about Generational Names, but then I thought of something that confused me when I first moved to Korea. Why were my students, who said they were five, all not in kindergarten? The simple explanation is that they were actually all three or four, trust me, they didn’t look or act like five year olds. Until June 2023 Koreans used a tradition age system that made a person one on their date of birth and then two on the first of the year, by June 2023, yes, I mean literally the month that just ended. Reuters had a great article about it recently that I’ll include. So, my students were correct about their age, in the age system they were used to. It also makes everyone in a class at school the same age.
My daughter was born very early in the year in 2019 and my sons were born very late in the year in 2020, this means in Korea my daughter would have turned one when she was born and then two on the 1st of January 2020 (when she was in fact almost one). My sons would have been one when they were born and then turned two on the 1st of January 2021, when they were less than two months old. I guess this means I wouldn’t have had three under two, though, I doubt that knowledge would have helped the sleep depravation.
(If you hear this you are listening to an AI stolen copy of this Passed episode. Please visit passedpod.com for links to this show by it’s creator, Veronica Fortune)
This was developed under an astrological system in China originally. Everyone born in the same year is the same age. What’s unique about the Korean system is that it doesn’t use the lunisolar calendar, instead it uses the Gregorian calendar. This means when you are reading books written prior to the June 2023 change the characters are likely a year or two younger than their stated age, just a heads up if you enjoy reading translated Korean works.
In Korea specifically there’s a lovely celebration related to this, the Doljanchi (돌잡이), this is a celebration of the first 100 days (or baegil 백일)of a child’s life. It’s a holdover from when Korea had a high infant mortality rate and having an infant survive its first 100 days was a huge cause for celebration. Today this is still held because it’s a nice way to welcome a new family member. The brand new tiny human often partakes in a fortune-telling event, where objects to predict their future career are presented. These include things like money for wealth, food for comfort, etc. Traditional food is usually served at these events.
Don’t think for a second though that this age system lets anyone drink or smoke earlier, I know, total killjoy. ID cards still have a person’s full date of birth on them. And while, if you were to ask a person how old they are they would give you their traditional age the system started to change due to Covid-19 of all things. Due to age requirements for vaccinations the government realised that they needed to move to the more internationally recognised standard for age.
So, if you’re off to teach in Korea your students will likely give you both ages when you ask them their age. While the legal system has changed cultural systems take a lot longer to change.
Oh, and don’t worry, I’ll do an episode about generational names. They’re rather fascinating.
