SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — As South Korea campaigns to retire an outdated and odd age-counting technique that makes individuals a 12 months or two older than they are surely, youngsters are among the many few who appear most keen to stay with the previous.
“I turned 6 and then became 5 again,” Kim Da-in stated when a TV reporter requested her a couple of new regulation that went into impact Wednesday that formalizes the worldwide age-counting technique in administrative and civil legal guidelines and encourages individuals to tally their very own ages accordingly.
South Korea’s conventional age-counting customized considers each particular person 1 12 months outdated at start and provides one other 12 months when the calendar hits Jan. 1, which means a baby born on Dec. 31 turns 2 the following day.
While the brand new regulation is the nation’s newest try and retire that technique and standardize worldwide ages based mostly on the passing of birthdays, it’s not instantly clear what is going to really change — placing apart the minor frustrations of kids like Da-in ready for his or her birthdays.
President Yoon Suk Yeol has described standardizing worldwide ages as a key aim of his authorities, citing a necessity to cut back “social and administrative confusion” and disputes. But officers in South Korea’s Ministry of Government Legislation acknowledge the brand new regulation received’t meaningfully change how the nation’s public companies are completed, as most are already based mostly on worldwide ages.
International ages are the usual in most South Korean legal guidelines and official and authorized paperwork, and outline when an individual goes to highschool, turns into eligible to drive and vote, and receives a pension.
Still, the regulation was welcomed by Choi Eun-young, a 49-year-old resident of the capital, Seoul, who now not feels the necessity to describe herself as being in her 50s.
“The law doesn’t make you biologically younger and there are no real benefits other than feeling good about being called a year younger than before,” she admitted. “But if that’s the international standard, there’s nothing bad in following it.”
Oh Seung-youl, one other Seoul resident, agreed.
“It’s always good to be younger,” Oh stated with fun, praising the brand new regulation for turning him 61 from 63.
“My birthday is Dec. 16 and I became 2 years old less than a month after I was born,” stated Oh. “That’s why (the old counting method) doesn’t make sense.”
But 21-year-old Kim Si-eun was already lacking the outdated counting technique, which felt easier to her.
“Korean-style age was actually easier to count,” she stated. “With everybody now going with international age, the changed ages feel awkward.”
While the brand new regulation states that an individual’s age have to be counted by the passing of birthdays for many public companies, it doesn’t have an effect on different age-related laws which can be based mostly on yearly guidelines.
Staying the identical is the nation’s authorized age for consuming and smoking, that are allowed from Jan. 1 of the 12 months an individual turns 19 of their worldwide age, no matter whether or not their birthday has handed.
The new regulation doesn’t have an effect on when South Korean males change into eligible to serve their necessary navy obligation, which is from Jan. 1 of the 12 months they flip 18 in worldwide age.
Changing these age laws would require revisions of the nation’s youth safety and navy service legal guidelines, the federal government laws ministry stated.
Lee Wan-kyu, the federal government laws minister, stated the brand new regulation is generally geared toward lowering confusion in each day life and galvanizing a change in “social perception” towards a extra rational means of counting ages.
Promoting worldwide age as a social normal could possibly be necessary in areas like healthcare. For instance, a baby could possibly be in danger if his or her mother and father see a cough syrup instruction that reads “20 ml for 12 years and older” and suppose it means the “Korean age,” the ministry stated in an announcement.
There have additionally been cases during which public transport customers demanded refunds after paying for his or her youngsters’s fares, pondering the free rides given to youngsters beneath 6 meant their Korean age.
Differing age interpretations impressed a serious dispute in 2004 at a dairy firm, Namyang, after unionists and administration disagreed over the phrases of their collective bargaining settlement that allowed the corporate to steadily cut back the salaries of staff aged 56 or older.
Following a yearslong court docket battle over whether or not 56 meant the Korean age or worldwide age, the Supreme Court in 2022 dominated that the settlement must be interpreted as 55 years in worldwide age, citing communication data between unionists.
Choi Duck-sang, a 56-year-old workplace employee, stated being youthful isn’t all the time a profit in a conservative society the place age goes a good distance in defining hierarchy.
“You are losing as much as two years!” he stated. “Still, I think this is a change that should have been made much earlier. It’s a good thing -– the entire nation got younger together.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”