South Koreans become younger overnight after country scraps 'Korean age' | CNN

withersailor@aussie.zone to World News@lemmy.ml – 58 points –
South Koreans become younger overnight after country scraps 'Korean age' | CNN
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babies are considered a year old on the day they’re born

Is there any useful idea behind this? That sounds completely dumb.

It's just semantics. When you are born, you are in your first year of life, not your zeroth year of life. After a full year, you are one year old. Grammar varies from language to language, and sometimes one feels more natural.

Imagine everyone in English said "I'm in my 32nd year" instead of "I'm 31 years old." Now you meet a foreigner who says the opposite. Translation issues abound!

To be fair, we do the same shit with what century we are in.

You're absolutely right. But as most people don't measure their age in centuries (yet), it isn't a problem.

I'm hoping the debate emerges when I'm in my 7th century.