New law makes all South Koreans younger

And other stories from the stranger side of life

A South Korean child

South Korea has scrapped its traditional method of counting ages and will align with the international standard, a change that will make its citizens either one or two years younger on official documents. Koreans are regarded a year old when born and a year is added every 1 January, but when calculating the legal age to drink alcohol and smoke, a person’s age is calculated from zero at birth and a year is added on 1 January. Next June, new laws take effect meaning “only the international method of counting will be used”, said The Guardian.

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