A South Korean lawmaker wants to abolish the country’s highly unusual age calculation system.

Under the system, babies are already 1 year old the day they are born, and automatically turn a year older every Jan. 1. That means that children delivered on New Year’s Eve are 2 years old the next day.

This is the system most South Koreans use in their everyday life, though they use the international system for most legal matters, according to CNN.

Hwang Ju-hong, a member of the country’s National Assembly, believes Korean ages are antiquated and inefficient, CNN reported. Earlier this year, he introduced a bill that makes the international way mandatory across all spheres.

“The difference in the age calculation methods used in legal and everyday life had various adverse effects such as: wasting unnecessary administrative costs, creating confusion in information exchange due to its difference with other countries and conflict due to fostering a culture of hierarchy based on age and avoiding certain months for childbirth,” his bill said.

The Korean age system can also be hard for parents who have their babies late in the year.

Some worry their children will fall behind other kids born earlier in the year at school because they have the same Korean age, even though they are months apart, according to the Associated Press (AP).

For Lee Dong-kil, whose daughter was born on Dec. 31, it was slightly jarring to have people call him to congratulate him on her second birthday so shortly after her birth.

“I thought: ‘Ah, right. She’s now 2 years old, though it’s been only two hours since she was born. What the heck!’” he told the AP.

It’s not clear how the exactly unusual age system came about.

Some believe it has roots in the traditional Chinese numerical system, which starts counting at one instead of zero. Korean culture has been heavily influenced by China for centuries.

South Korea introduced the international age system in the 1960s when Western culture started having a greater influence, the AP reported. But it did not push for the change as hard as other Asian countries did, and people continued using the local system in their everyday lives.

Some South Koreans are happy juggling the dual aging system.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【刺耳的】cìěr de jarring making or causing a harsh and irritating sound

【尽量兼顾】jìnliàng jiāngù juggle manage or alternate the requirements of (two or more activities) so as to handle each adequately

一位韩国立法者想摒弃韩国非常特殊的年龄计算制度。按照这种制度，宝宝在出生当天就被计算为一岁，到了每年的1月1日就自动再增一岁。这意味着元旦前夜出生的孩子第二天就算两岁。据CNN报道，这是多数韩国人日常生活中采用的年龄计算制度，不过在处理大部分法律事务时韩国人采用的是国际制度。

韩国国会议员黄举宏（音译）认为，韩国的年龄计算法过时又低效。今年早些时候，他提出了一个法案，要求在各个领域强制使用国际上通用的年龄计算法。

他的法案中写道：“法务和日常生活中采用的年龄计算法不同会产生多种负面效应，比如：增加不必要的行政开支，由于和其他国家在这方面的差异而造成信息交流上的混乱，助长基于年龄的等级文化所造成的冲突，驱使人们生孩子避开特定月份。”

对于那些孩子在年末出生的父母，韩国年龄计算制度的影响也比较大。

美联社报道称，有些父母担心孩子在学校会落后于出生月份靠前的其他孩子，虽然他们相差了好几个月，但他们的韩国年龄是一样的。

李东吉（音译）的女儿是在12月31日出生的，女儿才刚出生就有人打电话祝贺孩子两岁生日，对他来说这些祝贺声有点刺耳。他告诉美联社说：“我想：‘啊，好吧。她现在两岁了，虽然出生才两个小时。这是什么鬼？’”

这种非常不寻常的年龄计算制度是怎么产生的，人们并不清楚。

有些人认为这源于中国传统计数方法，一般从1开始计数，而不是从0开始。几个世纪以来，韩国文化一直受到中国的极大影响。

据美联社报道，20世纪60年代，由于西方文化的影响力增强，韩国开始引进国际年龄计算制度。不过韩国没有像其他亚洲国家一样强力推行国际制度，于是韩国人就继续在日常生活中使用本土的年龄计算制度。

一些韩国人很愿意同时使用两种年龄计算制度。

(Chinadaily.com.cn)