Farewell to the Korean age system

Addressing peer pressure: Age has always been an important factor in Korea because, in the Korean language, how one addresses another is often determined by the age difference between the two. — AP

South Korea is finally letting go of an age counting method that no other country in the world uses.

Under the traditional East Asian way of reckoning age, a person is considered one year old at birth, counting the time spent in the mother’s womb as the first year of life, and grows a year older at the turn of the calendar year, regardless of the actual date of birth.