Tag: soju

Korea has a BIG drinking culture. I’m not going to get into the reasons for this right now, instead this post is what to do about this if you are not a big drinker yourself.

It is very hard to say no to alcohol when with Koreans. You know how in school they try to teach you how to deal with peer pressure? Yeah well that’s not going to help in this situation. If you flatly refuse to drink alcohol when everyone else is drinking it is likely to offend and put a damper on the night. You may decide to just drink a little bit, but once you start drinking you are expected to keep up- and Koreans can drink an awful lot (as usual I’m talking about Koreans who have lived most of their life in Korea, not Korean Australians/Americans etc).

So what do you do if you don’t want to drink anything at all? The most watertight excuse is to say you are on medication and there is no way you can drink. If you say anything vague about illness or health you will still be pressured to drink and possibly someone will tell you that drinking is good for your health!

So if you do want to drink a bit, but don’t want to drink much, AND don’t want to put a damper on the night I know of two ways to do this. The strategy in the above comic is the method we usually use. I don’t like drinking much (and I do have health issues but they are too vague to try and explain) so I try to avoid it. Soju is not nice tasting either so I don’t want to drink a lot of it.

I’ll plan on having a maximum of 2 shots of soju. Usually soju glasses are raised and clinked together with saying cheers in Korean (or sometimes English depending where you are) and then everyone drinks at the same time.

By now people are more relaxed and the conversation is flowing. This is when my husband will discreetly pour water in my glass. You can’t really pour your own drink in Korean culture so while everyone is pouring each others drinks is when he’ll do it. So when it’s time to do another “cheers” my glass will be full and with what everyone else assumes is soju as it looks the same. As everyone else gets drunker it gets easier to do this. If someone does insist on pouring soju into my glass, we’ll just switch our glasses and mine will be refilled with water again.

Another option for drinking less when with Koreans is to not drink soju but to order a different alcohol. Say you would prefer something like beer instead of soju and drink it slowly, you can even drink it from a soju glass and still do “cheers” with everyone, but of course you’ll be consuming a lot less alcohol than everyone else. Another problem is that Koreans don’t just drink at one place. Expect everyone to move to a second and even third location to continue drinking so make sure you pace yourself if you plan on drinking more. Also it’s easier to handle the alcohol if your stomach isn’t empty and luckily there is always food in front of you, so make the most of it.

These examples are for drinking with acquaintances and friends, if you are drinking with a Korean boss there is even more pressure to drink and they expect you to drink a lot. While it will be okay if a Korean friend catches you out with the water ploy, it may not be good if your Korean boss catches that.

There are also other customs to be aware of, such as: holding your glass with 2 hands when someone pours your drink, pouring for others, especially those older than you, and even turning your head away from the person of highest status when you drink. If you are going out with Koreans you have to remember that as soon as you step into a Korean restaurant, especially one for drinking, you are in Korea. It might be Australia just outside but inside it is Korea.

Towards the end of the night it’s likely everyone will decide to go to noraebang (karaoke) which is pretty fun.

Though, if you are scared of singing in front of people and the thought of going to karaoke makes you want to faint, I have tips for this too! That will be in another post.