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thanothersofthesamegrade.Forexample,studentAwhowasborninJanuary2001enterselementaryschool
in2007withothersbornayearearlierin2000,ratherthanenteringin2008withothersborninthesameyear.
Theyliveasaclassmateinthesamegrade,althoughtheyareayearyounger,andbecauseofthecontradiction
betweenlegalageandgradeage,theymeetdiversecircumstances.
Lee Yoon-young, a junior in the Department of Beauty and Arts
Management at Kookmin University, expressed her complaints saying,
ⓒwikipedia
“Being a BETY, I had advantages to start my social life earlier, but I met
difficulties with relationships and honorifics more frequently.” She also
mentioned stories from the time she was out of high school but yet a
minor - her friends, who were legal adults, could not go for a drink with
her because she was not yet allowed to drink. This is because the Juvenile
Protection Act, which prohibits minors from drinking, is based on Korean
▲18-year-oldBETYareminorsbylegal
ageandtreatsBETYindividualsasminors.Inaddition,18-year-oldBETY
sense,althougheveryotheraspectof
individuals,whojustgraduatedhighschool,livetheireverydaylifethesame
theirlifeisjustlikeotheradults.
as other adults, but struggle with legal limitations including age-restricted
products,bankaccounts,part-timejobs,andmanymore,becausetheyarelegallyminors.Theyarealsoblamed
for perplexing seniority hierarchy between people. This problem comes when a BETY becomes friends with
a person of the same grade and at the same time, another of the same age who is not of the same class year.
Thiswouldmakethetwopeoplefromdifferentclassesofyearbecome“friends,”whichwouldusuallyindicate
people of the same age in Korea, and complicate the hierarchy that is deeply invoked in Korean culture. This
problem is usually called “Jokbo* destruction” in Korea. To abolish these complications, the revision of the
2007 Education Law prohibited early admissions. However, the law was first applied to those born in 2003,
whobecameadultsmostrecently,andtherearestillmanygenerationsaccustomedtothecultureofBETYand
confronttheproblemsderivedfromit.
*Jokbo:ThisKoreanexpressionreferstothefamilytreeinanarrowsenseandhierarchyinarelationshipinabroadsense.
TheGapbetweentheLegalAgeandtheRealAge
Born after July 27, 1953, the Korean War armistice, the baby boomer*
Korea
generationoftenhavethreebirthdays.Thethreebirthdaysarethelunardate
of
of birth, the solar date of birth, and the date of birth based on the official
Archives
certificateoffamilyregister.Agecanalsobevariedinsomecases.Itseems
ⓒNational
reasonabletounifytheagebasedontheinternationalagecountingsystem,
but it is not always the case. This is because there are a lot of people who
▲InKorea,theboomersarethepost-
haveadifferencebetweentheirrealageandtheageontheofficialcertificate
KoreanWargenerationwhospenttheir
offamilyregister.Sincetheageonthecertificateoffamilyregisterworksas
childhoodsintheaftermathofthewar.
theonlylegalageinadministrativefield,thereissomeconfusionresultingfromthisagegap.
Infact,inKorea,thereweremanycaseswheretheageonthefamilyregisterandtheactualageweredifferent,
especially in areas with age restrictions such as attending school, getting a job, or entering a public office.
In a related case, singer Lee Seon-hee, born in 1964, corrected her legal age from 24 to 27 to qualify for the
municipalelectionheldonJune20,1991.InthecaseofsingerLeeEun-ha,bornin1961,sheraisedheragethree
years from her legal age in 1974 for her broadcast appearance, and then applied for a correction back to her
originalagein2007.
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MAY 2022

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