The Korean Age System Vs The World's, As Explained By A TikTok User

Korean age has a way of surprising people who assume birthdays work the same everywhere. In South Korea, and traditionally in North Korea too, age is counted differently, and that simple detail can make someone seem one or two years older than they are by international standards.

A TikTok user recently broke down the Korean age system in a way that caught a lot of attention online. The explanation sparked reactions because it mixes culture, math, and a habit that feels completely normal in Korea but unusual to many people elsewhere.

Once the comments started rolling in, the whole thing became even more interesting.

Age is such an important aspect of Korean culture, and they actually count their ages a bit differently from the rest of the world.

The account is dedicated to teaching people about Korea, the Korean language, and how different their culture is from the rest of the world. The user's video about the Korean Age System has now gathered over 500k views and over 110k likes.

The video begins with the TikToker explaining how age is a significant aspect of Korean culture. They also highlight that when you meet Koreans, the one question they are most likely to ask is your age, as they want to know how to address you (they address older and younger people differently).

Koreans never address older people by their mere names. The account provided examples of how we can address others in terms of Korean culture.

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One way to easily understand their age system is by remembering that once a Korean baby is born, its age is automatically set to one, since they also take into consideration the time spent inside the womb.

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There's also another twist, though: they don't count their age using their actual birthday as a milestone; they use New Year's Day to add one to their age!

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Basically, every single person in Korea ages at the same time when it's January 1st. Cool, right?

That is where the system starts to feel very different from the one most people know.

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The very thing that makes this system peculiar compared to the rest of the world is that this whole age system would make Koreans 1-2 years older than their actual age.

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Here's the video with the full explanation:

It's also interesting to note that both South and North Korea follow this system.

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The comments quickly turned into a second explanation thread.

It’s like the pregnancy reveal drama, when she didn’t tell her sister first.

AITA for not telling my sister about my pregnancy before announcing it online?

People in the comments also pointed out some other ways to calculate their Korean age more easily.

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They still give importance to their actual birthdays. However, they just turn a year older every New Year's Day, not on their birthdays.

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That detail seems to be the part that trips people up the most.

Basically, even if you were born in the latter half of the year, your age would still be incremented once it's New Year's Day.

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Some people expressed confusion about this unusual age system:

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The Korean Age System is certainly a refreshing yet unusual concept, but it shows how truly different one nation can be from the rest of the world, even if it's just a matter of ages. Have you ever heard of this system before now?

Comment with your thoughts, or share this article for all your family and friends to see!

It is the kind of detail that sticks with you after the video ends.

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