this is for context of the "about yoongi" post!

• korean public schools start in march. there are two semesters with around a month break between each one. students generally graduate/move up a year in early february, for example, the high school that yoongi attended in daegu had its 35th graduation ceremony on february 8th, 2012.
• there are three levels of school that students go through: elementary, middle, and high school. elementary school is grades 1-6, middle is 7-9, and high school is 10-12.
• most korean students attend something called hagwon after school. these are basically private organizations that provide students with extra schooling and tutoring in various subjects. for example hagwon organizations exist for piano, english, really any academic or learned thing.
• to get into a university in south korea, every student takes the same exam which is called the suneung. students usually take it in their final year of high school. this exam is viewed as basically the accumulation of your entire school career, and is one of the most important things as a student in south korea.
• in korea everybody is one year old from the day they are born, and age up on new years. yoongi was born march 1993, so as of that month he was one year old. when the new year passed on january 1994, he was two, even though he hadn't turned one year old. for these two months, yoongi's korean age (two) is two years older than his actual age (zero). when he turns one in march of 1994, his korean age will only be one year older than his actual age. this continues as he gets older.
  • because of this, nobody in korea is actually the same age as their korean age, even if they're born on new years. if they're born on new years, their korean age will just always be two years older than their actual age.
  • this is why yoongi posted on fancafe in december 2017 saying "i'll be 26 soon." even though he was 24 then, his korean age was 25, and on new years he would age up again to 26.