Korean Age

A persons age in Korea is a little different than it is in Canada. That is, when someone is born in Korea, they are automatically 1 year old. Four days later, they turn 2. This means that in Korea, I would be 32 years old instead of 30 years old like I am in Canada. I wonder if the world statistics take this into their calculations when they are determining the average life expectancy for a given country. On wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy), the mean life expectancy at birth for Koreans is 80.00 years. They rank 19th overall. Canada's mean life expectancy at birth is 80.54 years. They are ranked 11th. My questions is whether these statistics take into consideration the way that age is calculated here. If I was to subtract two years from the South Korean mean age, they only ranks 45th place behind Czech Republic.

In Korea, it is very important to know someones age. It is often the first question that someone will ask when they first meet. It lets them know how to address the other person. An elder person should be talked to in a different manner than a younger person. There is a sort of hierarchical system that is derived from Confucism. I don't fully understand it yet, but I'm sure I will learn a lot about it throughout the year. Depending on a persons age, different words will be used to adress them. This makes it quite difficult for foreigners because they are simply trying to learn how to greet. I greet everyone the same. I try and use the most respected way of doing so. That means that my elder do not get offended. This also means that I would be giving younsters more respect than they would be use too, but I do not think that would be doing them any harm. Its better than the other way around.