BTS's V (Kim Taehyung) becomes the face of Korea's age calculation system used by local and international media

One of the most confusing aspects of South Korea has been its age system, and that is thankfully about to change. 

The South Korean government passed a law last month that would unify the age counting system to the international standard beginning in June of this year, removing Korea's two traditional methods of counting age.

Based on the current Korean age system, you are one year old the day you are born and age by one more year on New Year’s Day.

There are currently three main ways to calculate your age in Korea: 

• your actual age according to your birthday
• the age according to your birth year
• the Korean age that is used by everyone in Korean society

BTS member Kim Taehyung, aka V, who recently turned 27 years old, has become the face used by Korean and international media to explain the different age systems due to the circumstances of his birth date.

Taehyung was born on December 30, 1995, which means that within 2 days of being a newborn baby, he has already aged by 2 years. He has gone through three different ages in the past week. 

• International Age: 27 years old (on Dec. 30)
• Korean Year Age: 28 years old (on Dec. 30)
• Another Korean Age: 29 years old (on Jan. 1)

Due to Taehyung's overwhelming global popularity and his birth date, he has become the media's favorite celebrity to feature when explaining the Korean age system, and he has appeared in numerous media outlets in recent months.

• KBS News

• Yonhap News

• MBC News

• Korea Now

International media publications have also used Taehyung in explaining the new Korean Age system, like BBC News in their article "Why Koreans could soon become a year younger."

Taehyung has also appeared on Mexican TV for this topic. 

Taehyung is currently 29 years old based on the Korean age system, but he will revert back to 27 years old in June.