Korean Age Calculator: What's My Korean Age? (2024)

Enter Your Birth Year Below:

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What is the Korean age system? What is the difference between Korean age and American age (International Age or Western Age)?

1) In Korea, you are born one (1) years of age.

While Westerners consider newborn babies to be ‘zero’ years old upon birth, native Koreans actually calculate the time babies spend in their mother’s womb as a ‘year’ (although, technically, it is 10 months, they round it up to one year), so when babies are born in Korea, they are considered to be 한 살(han sal)=”one year old”. This automatically adds one year to the age that you may be used to. So when someone in Korea tells you, for example, that they are 스무 살(seumu sal)=“twenty years old”, they may actually be 열여덟 살(yeol yeodeol sal)=”18 years old” or 열아홉 살(yeolahop sal)=”19 years old”.

2) In Korea, you increase your age count on January 1st of every year, not on your birthday.

Now, why would a native Korean add two years to their ‘Western age,’ you may wonder. This is because Koreans automatically gain a year on January 1st, regardless of whether their birthday has passed or not.

• International Age measures how long you have lived.
• Korean Age measures how many years you have experienced.

For example, let’s say a child was born on December 31st, 2010. This child is already a year old, but only two days later, although the child is only three days old, he/she will already be two years old in Korean age, because everyone gains a year when the new year begins. So their actual age in international standards, or 만 나이(man nai), would technically be ‘zero’ years old, but when the parents are asked about the age of their child, they will probably answer, “한국 나이로 두 살이에요.”(hanguk nairo du sarieyo)=”My child is two years old in Korean age.”

One thing to keep in mind is that 만(man) is a Sino Korean word which does not come from the Chinese character ‘萬’, which means “ten thousand”, but from ‘滿’, which means “full” and it’s the same as the international age.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Korean age culture, however, is only a cultural thing–in order to avoid confusion and keep up with international standards, on official documents such as a passport or a birth certificate, everyone in Korea will use their 만 나이(man nai), or international age. This means that when you see the age of Korean sports stars at the PyeongChang Olympics, it will be their international age, not their Korean age concept.

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What is my Korean age? How can I calculate my Korean age? Have you ever wondered? Calculating your Korean age is not very difficult! Here are 3 different but easy ways.

First, all you need to do is add 1 to the current year, then subtract the year of your birth, and you will get your Korean age.

Example:

If you were born in 1980 and wanted to calculate your age in 2018:2018 + 1 - 1980 = 39 (Korean Age)

Second, if you’re not good at calculating, you can just follow this:

• If your birthday has passed: Your Age + 1 = Korean Age
• If your birthday hasn’t passed yet: Your Age + 2 = Korean Age

Third, use our Korean age converter. This is the easiest way. Just enter your birth year and it’ll calculate your Korean age. Click here to get get your Korean age calculator.

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If Koreans want to know your ask, they probably use one of these following questions. They all mean ‘How old are you?’.

• Informal: 몇 살이야? (meot sariya?)
• Polite: 나이가 어떻게 돼요? (naiga eotteoke doeyo?)
• Formal: 연세가 어떻게 되세요? (yeonsega eotteoke doeseyo?)

How old am I in South Korea? Have you wondered how old you are in Korea? Do you want to count your age in Korean?

• Informal: ___이야. (___ iya.)
• Polite: ___이에요. (___ ieyo.)
• Formal: ___입니다. (___ imnida.)

Just find your age below and fill out the blank above. The above lines just mean ‘to be’. 살 (sal) below is a counter and it is used when you’re counting the ages of people or animals. You can download the following list here.

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You may have noticed in the dialogue above that ‘A’ asked ‘B’ how old they were by asking:

몇 년생이세요?
Myeot nyeonsaengiseyo?
What year were you born?

This is a common question asked by native Koreans when asking age, as they will likely figure out how old you are in Korean age by the year you were born. So instead of answering with your actual age, you could simply reply by giving your birth year as an answer—just let them know the year you were born, or you could just cite the last two numbers of the year you were born:

Example:

• If you were born in 1990, you could say:
  • 1990년생입니다. (1990nyeonsaengimnida)=”I was born in the year 1990.”
  • 90년생입니다. (90nyeonsaengimnida)=”I was born in the year (19)90.”

빠른 __년생
Ppareun ___nyeonsaeng

Another age related expression that may throw you off is “빠른 년생 People.” We will describe why this phrase is used as it relates to the Korean education system. In Korea, the school year starts in March. This means the deadline to make it to a certain grade would be late February. ‘빠른 (ppareun) + insert year of birth’ refers to people that were born in either January or February, whose parents decided to let their children go to school with children born a year earlier.

Example:

If you were born in January, 1980, and went to school with classmates born in 1979, you would refer to yourself as 빠른 1980년생(ppareun cheongubaekpalsim-nyeonsaeng), or simply omit the first two numbers and say 빠른 80년생(ppareun palsim-nyeonsaeng). You can even say 빠른 80 (ppareun palgong). ‘Gong’ is another way to say 0 (zero) in Korean.

For example, say a child was born in February, 1999. The parents used to have two options–did they want their child to enter school as the youngest, or did they wait a year and let their child enter school as the oldest student? Depending on the decision that has been made, the child ended up going to school with friends who were born in 1998, or, those who were actually a year older than them. This means that other children born in 1999, who entered school a year later, had to refer to him/her as:

• 오빠 (oppa) = older brother(addressed by a female)
• 언니 (eonni) = older sister(addressed by a female)
• 누나(nuna) = older brother(addressed by a male)
• 형 (hyeong) = older sister(addressed by a male)

This system even confused native Korean people so it’s not been used since 2003. But those who entered elementary school before 2003 still see 빠른 년생 people. Just remember that these phrases are also used by native Koreans to refer to blood siblings, as well as non-related people who are senior to them.

Now if you ask someone their age and realize that they are younger than you, you can take the initiative and address them informally. However, in most cases, you will likely continue to use polite phrases until the recipient asks you to speak to them informally. And if you find out that someone is older than you, remember to use polite phrases and suffixes.

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