I had no idea this was even a thing: South Korea to abandon their own age-counting systems and standardize to the rest of the world
In all fairness, it sounds like most of Korea was already in line with the rest of the world, but it’s funny to think that there are segments of the culture that still used the antiquated counting systems of olden times, and are retroactively going back in age 1-2 years.
I had no idea these alternate ideologies of counting age even existed in Korea or anywhere else, but the whole idea of gaining a year solely for the sake of hitting January 1 for the first time in their life is pretty hilarious. By that logic, since my sister has a December birthday, she’d have been two years old after like days of existence outside of the womb.
Obviously, it’s very easy to see why the country is abandoning it across the board now, because it really does seem absurd in those select cases. But it’s still funny to imagine the reality that around the country, there are legitimately people who are being able to proclaim that they’re suddenly up to two years younger.
I imagine most of those people are probably of older generations and higher ages, but it’s funny to imagine that if it were still in play for some of the younger demographics, and the repercussions of being rewound. Like being 19 and able to drink, to suddenly being corrected back to 17 and you’re now a minor and can’t legally drink anymore.
But the more impactful scenario are the men who are in the 28-29 age range and have been avoiding enlisting for their mandatory two years of military service. People can now postpone 1-2 more years and maybe dodgers who are 30 and 31 and did some jail time for it, are suddenly back to being 28-29 and eligible to enlist, would they receive any sort of pardon or reparation?
K-Pop stars and athletes and eSports stars are suddenly younger out of the blue, and in great examples of mind over matter, the former prodigies that are now “old” at 17 are suddenly 15 again, and are considered high-ceiling prospects, but unable to recapture the talent of their pre-teen ages, because they’ve already mentally resigned themselves to being old.
And then there’s me, oh how I’d love to be able to proclaim being two years younger, just to be able to say that I’m not in my 40s again. But then again, I wouldn’t be able to make the same age jokes between mythical wife and myself, and I’d have to go through the torment and turmoil of coming to grips that I’m entering my 40s for the second time now. I may even cross the line of definition between an elder millennial and a plain regular pleeb one, depending on interpretation.
But at least for a year and change, I could say that I was back in my 30s, and although it wouldn’t change anything really for me, it’d be nice to know that I had successfully and legitimately turned the clock back. Might make for interesting brog content potentially.
