world age calculations

[woodcutter]

I'm losing the plot these days and I can't even remember how to calculate my age in China. I think it is the Korean system -1, (so, sometimes western age, sometimes one year more)????

What I really want to ask though is if anyone knows how this varies around the world. Aside from China/Korea, does any other culture follow a different system?

[klortho]

My understanding is that, in China, they say "This year I'm 43", and that they start with the Chinese New Year's. Probably now, though, I guess, they start with the civil calendar New Year's. So, if it's before their birthday in that year, then they give their age as one more than we would. If it's after, it's the same age.

But I don't know that I understand this correctly. Whenever I try to have a conversation with a Chinese person about it, we both get confused. I'd love to read a more clear explanation.

[skylee]

This is the HK way.

Say if you were born on 4 Nov 1970. Today (4 Nov 2005) is your 35th birthday, meaning you have lived for 35 full years (滿35歲). You were 34 years old on 3 Nov 2005. You will remain 35 years old until 4 Nov 2006, when you turn 36. Even if one likes to use the Chinese lunar calendar, it is just the same way based on the lunar calendar.

But there is a term 虛齡, which means that instead of being 0 year old when you were born, you were 1 year old when you were born (well you had spent 10 months in your mom's womb ...) .

[Lu]

I got confused sometimes as well, sometimes we ended up telling each other our year of birth, to avoid misunderstanding.

Skylee, funny that according to the Chinese, babies are in their mothers' wombs for 10 months, while in the west they say it's 9 months... not sure where this difference comes from.

[Sortaz]

funny that according to the Chinese, babies are in their mothers' wombs for 10 months, while in the west they say it's 9 months... not sure where this difference comes from

If I remember correctly, 10 lunar months is about the same as 9 months in the Gregorian calender. Thereby the difference.

[woodcutter]

Thanks, seems that it's as I thought then, Korean style minus one.

I've googled this in quite a lot of ways, but I can't find any other nations or cultures that have a different system. I'm surprised, because I would have thought some places like Vietnam with a big Chinese influence would have done the same kind of thing at least.............