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Another Year Younger

How would it feel to get a year or two younger overnight? This summer, the 52 million people who live in South Korea found out. The government of the Asian country switched from its traditional way of calculating a person’s age. 

South Korea had used a method that’s often called “Korean age.” In that unusual system, people are considered 1 year old on the day they’re born. Then, no matter what their birthday, all of them turn a year older on January 1. That means a baby born on December 31 would turn 2 the next day! 

Since the 1960s, South Korea has used the same age-counting system as the rest of the world for medical forms and legal documents. But many people still used the traditional Korean age method in their everyday lives. That caused a lot of confusion. 

A law that retired the Korean age system went into effect on June 28. Age is now calculated the way it is in the United States and most other countries. South Koreans don’t turn a year older until their actual birthday each year. A survey in 2022 found that about 80 percent of South Koreans were in favor of the change. 

“It’s always good to be younger,” Oh Seung-youl told the Associated Press with a laugh in June. He’s a resident of Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Under the new law, his age changed from 63 to 61. 

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