Why do Koreans start at 1yr old when the rest of the world starts at 0?
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Think about it like your grade school. When you go to the school for the first time you’re 1st grade. Then the next year every classmate advances to the 2nd grade, and so on.
Koreans count ages like we count grades. Everyone born in 2024 is now 1 years old. And they will be 2 years old in 2025, and so on.
They don’t anymore, legally. Socially, it remains
It’s really a non-issue
As long as the country is on the same page and everything is consistent there isn’t a problem
As for why, history and tradition, that’s it
Not only Koreans – Greeks traditionally do this too! You’re basically 1 year older in Greece than in the rest of the world. Essentially it’s rounding up to the next year from the moment that year of your life starts, so if you’re “1 day old” you’re 1 day into living in the first year of your life… or year 1
The responses so far are mostly modern interpretations of traditional East Asian age reckoning, which all originated from ancient China. Language tells us a lot about how the systems originally came to be.
The words for age do not refer to years, but actually comes from the names for the positions of the planet Jupiter in Chinese astrology. This was due to the belief that a person’s fate is determined by when they were born in the 12 (and wider 60) year cycle of the stars. These cycles start around the the point of the lunar new year in January or February.
So when somebody is said to be 1yr old, it means they are in their 1st cycle of Jupiter. They become 2 yrs old after their first lunar new year because a new cycle starts and they will be in their second one.
Koreans at some point decided to simplifying things and switch to using new year in the “modern” Gregorian calendar instead of the lunar new year for counting age. They also gained a new term for age, the “full year”, to distinguish traditional ages from the international system.
Perhaps they picked it up from Americans who start numbering their building floors from 1 rather than ground floor. Just sayin’.
I spent 8 years in Korea. My wife of 46 years is Korean. As I understand it, you are considered 1 year old at your 100 day birthday. That’s gestation plus 100 days. Difference between solar and lunar calendar does play a role but don’t know the details. Hope this helps.
I suppose this counting is similar to how we (in America) discuss (or count) centuries. For example: the last century was the 20th century, even though the years were 1900 – 1999. And the current century is 21st century.
To be honest, my grandmother also counted the age this was also. She would never count how many years have past, but what year was the kid in right now, that would be the age. As in, he started his 8th year instead of saying he just turned 7. My grandmother was born, raised and lived almost all her life in India. Depending on context, my mom also counts like that if the number is in her favor 😁
Same in Vietnam and many other Asian countries. People ask what year you were born if they wanna know your exact age. It doesn’t cause any problem at all.
No one refers to a baby born December 2023 as 2 year old, people will just say 9 month old.
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