Why do Koreans start at 1yr old when the rest of the world starts at 0?
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Consistency.
People age +1 year together, on January 1st. That makes it easier for things like school admission.
As a korean myself, i’ve always heard that it was meant to signify the ~1 year you spend in your mother’s womb.
Doesn’t really matter anymore since the system was already being phased out, and the government officially switched to the western system earlier this year.
if you think about it you may realize that we start life in the womb. we don’t suddenly begin life over once our mother delivers us.
They count age the way that people in the west count school year. This is about as simple as it gets. The moment you start grade or primary school, you’re in grade 1. So the meaning of “age” is defined not as “how long have you been alive” but “how many years have you lived in”
The way my grandma explained it to me, “You alive, it is you first year. Next year is 2nd year.” lol.
FYI, Korean government legally changed this last year. Now all legal things like school, etc. will be based on actual birthdate and starting at 0 like most of the world. How fast people will adopt to this change will still have to be seen. For most part people still use their “Korean” age.
It’s the traditional method of counting age that Korea adopted in ancient times from china. While china have since transitioned to the normal global standard, Korea actually continue to use it until recent legal changes. However , culturally they still reckon age by the traditional manner
I suspect, though have no support whatsoever, that it is more a concept of when and how to measure age. A newborn in Korea (or a few other Asian countries, according to other comments) is 1 because they are living their first year. In western countries age is instead measured by the years completed, turning 1 on the anniversary of their birth date.
Pokemon starts at level 1 when they hatch. Why not Koreans?
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