Korean Business Socialization

Good Just-Barely-After-Noon!

At least that's what time it is as I start this entry...haha.

So, on Friday night, I went to my first 회식 or Company Dinner. These are notorious in Korea and Japan for being places where businessmen (and women) have a generally drunken good time to relieve their stress from a long week or month's work and create some camaraderie - entirely at the Director's expense. However, these dinners are not all just good and fun, as you might imagine. In Asian culture, there are some serious rules to drinking culture.

If your superior offers you a drink, it's close to offensive to refuse. Also, they remember this later (even if they got smashed) and it can prove potentially detrimental to either your career, or at least your mental well-being while in your position. There's a lot of thought that goes into one's actions in a setting like this for everyone but the boss. It's really rather unfortunate, but there's quite a bit of catering to the boss's whims and people finding ways to avoid drinking as much as they're asked to (such as throwing the contents of a shot under the table) or keeping one's shot glass filled with water and pretending to be drunk.

I was mercifully safe from most of this because I'm the youngest in my cohort, and a girl, and a pastor's kid. I was asked to have a customary shot with the Director and the Vice-Director and the Head-Teacher. Other than that, I was pretty much left to my own devices. I had a few shots with the teachers as well, but I had about a third of what most people were having. I still had something along the order of 10 shots of soju. I was generally okay and sober for most of the night, but man. People were both wasted as well as acting wasted.

Also, I noted that one form of showing your juniors that you care is by not forcing them to drink? The Vice-Director, who is a woman, came around and poured us drinks, but then simply left the table. The teacher sitting next to me told me that she she's showing that she cares by allowing us to choose whether to drink or not. Strange, this drinking culture.

Anyhow, there was lots of eating and drinking, then everyone decided we were going to "Yi-cha" or second round. We headed for a nearby no-rae-bang, or kareoke place. We booked a room and the teachers went around each singing a song or so. However, very soon after we arrived at this place (by which point our Director was very thoroughly drunk, which I was told was a dangerous state for him to be in as he had a tendency to turn violent), we lost about half of our party. I was rather confused, but one of the teachers led me out and told me that some of the others had gone to a club in the area and to go with them. The only people left were the company superiors, pretty much. So, he took me to the club, paid for me, and I met up with the other younger teachers there.

We didn't really spend that much time there, but I ended up walking one of the new teachers home, all the way to his room, before coming home to my own room. And yet...the end of this story is yet to come:

I was not only slightly inebriated, but also incredibly tired. I must've sat on the toilet with the intent to go to the bathroom...and then fell asleep leaning against the wall! I woke up the next morning at around 7 a.m. very tired and stiff from sitting in my cubicle-sized stall/bathroom for hours.

After all this, I went to hang out with Sara again and we spent a good last weekend together exploring Korea doing touristy things.

In the end, I think it was a good experience for me, but it looks like I'll be doing a lot of taking care of people when these dinners come around. I don't think I'll need to be as scared of it as I thought, but I don't know if it'll be as enjoyable as some people think it to be. I wonder what other experiences I'll have while I'm here...

Earnestly,
Seoul Searching