在韩国，一个人可能会有三种年龄，因为韩国人对年龄有三种不同的计算方式。在这种现状引发行政管理危机后，韩国总统当选人决定统一韩国人的年龄计算方式，这样一来韩国人可能将集体“变年轻”。

 

South Korea's population may become a year younger on paper if the country's president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol succeeds in abolishing the concept of the "Korean age."

如果韩国总统当选人尹锡悦成功废除“韩国年龄”概念，韩国人口可能将在名义上集体年轻一岁。

 

Lee Yong-ho, chief of Yoon's transition team's political, judicial¹, and administrative² subcommittee, said during a press conference on Monday that they are pushing to standardize³ the way age is counted in South Korea, per Yonhap News. The change is being pursued for practical reasons, Lee noted⁴.

据韩联社报道，交接委政务司法行政分科干事李容镐在4月11日的新闻发布会上称，他们将推动韩国年龄计算方式的标准化。李容镐表示，这一改动是出于实际原因。

 

"Due to the different calculations of legal and social age, we have experienced unnecessary social and economic costs from persistent⁵ confusion and disputes over calculating age when receiving social, welfare and other administrative services or signing or interpreting various contracts," he said.

李容镐称：“由于法律上和社会上的年龄计算方法不统一，国民在接受社会福利和其他行政服务或签订解释各种合同时纠纷不断，产生了不必要的社会经济费用。”

 

South Korea currently has several ways of counting one's age.

韩国当前有好几种年龄计算方式。

 

One of them is the "Korean age" system that Yoon's government is looking to do away with, which involves South Koreans being labeled as one year old at birth and adding another year upon the New Year. This is because the nine months a child spends in the womb — rounded up to one year — is counted as the first year of the child's life, per the system.

其中一种是尹锡悦政府打算废除的“韩国年龄”体系，按照旧的计算方法，韩国人刚出生就是一岁，过了新年又加一岁。这是因为孩子在子宫里度过的九个月被粗略算成一年，所以按照这一体制这段时间就是孩子生命的第一年。

 

Besides the "Korean age" system and the internationally recognized means of tabulating⁶ one's age according to birthdays, South Korea also has a third method for calculating age. The process involves adding another year to a person's age on New Year's Day, regardless of their actual birthday, while also considering a person to be "zero years old" at birth.

除了“韩国年龄”计算体系和国际公认的根据生日来计算年龄的方法，韩国人还有第三种计算年龄的方式。按照这种计算方式，一个人无论何时过生日，在新年第一天就会增加一岁，但是出生时算作“0岁”。

 

These three systems essentially⁷ mean that someone born in December 2020 could technically⁸ have three different ages — the person would be three years old according to "Korean age," aged⁹ one according to the international age system, and two years old per the third way of counting one's age in South Korea.

这三种体系并存在本质上意味着一个在2020年12月出生的人从严格意义上来讲将有三种不同年龄。根据“韩国年龄”体系这个人现在是3岁，按照国际年龄计算体系这个人是1岁，而按照韩国的第三种年龄计算方法这个人是2岁。

 

According to reporting from The Korea Herald¹⁰, there were calls for legal age counting to be standardized¹¹ this January when health authorities used the international age and Korean ages interchangeably to set guidelines for COVID-19 vaccine¹² guidelines and policies.

据《韩国先驱报》报道，今年1月当韩国卫生部门交互使用国际年龄和韩国年龄来制定新冠疫苗指导方针和政策时，有人呼吁将法定年龄计算方式标准化。

 

The three co-existing age-counting systems led to an administrative debacle in which people who did not meet the required age to get their COVID-19 jabs were still required to show proof of vaccination¹³.

这三种并存的年龄计算方式引发了行政管理危机，有一些没有达到接种新冠疫苗年龄标准的人仍被要求出示疫苗接种证明。

 

"There would be much less confusion if we could have the same idea of what it means to be how old we actually are," Lee said, adding that his team would push for this change to be implemented¹⁴ by early 2023.

李容镐称：“如果我们对自己的实际年龄有统一的认知方式，就不会造成这么多混乱。”他补充道，他的团队将会在2023年初前推动实现这一改动。

 

Lee added that the process would involve amending¹⁵ the existing law, not proposing new legislation.

李容镐还表示，在这一过程中将需要修改现行法律，但不会提出新法案。

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