Age in South Korea

Traveling to South Korea is a bit like traveling into the future. The moment you step across the border, you automatically turn one year older. In Korea, a baby is one year old at birth, instead of zero as in most other cultures. And things get even trickier, since everyone has the same birthday . . . sort of. After the New Year passes, everyone in Korea automatically ages one year, even if they haven’t had their actual birthday yet. It gets even more complex for people who were born just a few days before the New Year. If a baby is born on December 31, it’d be one year old. However, after January 1, that same baby will automatically turn two.

So if you’re unsure of what your Korean age is, subtract the year of your birth from the current year and then add one. Or if someone asks your age, you could probably save a lot of hassle and just tell them what year you were born.