{"id":29,"date":"2008-10-25T23:03:12","date_gmt":"2008-10-26T03:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/?p=29"},"modified":"2008-10-25T23:03:12","modified_gmt":"2008-10-26T03:03:12","slug":"soju-%ec%86%8c%ec%a3%bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/soju-%ec%86%8c%ec%a3%bc\/","title":{"rendered":"Soju (\uc18c\uc8fc)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now, enough with the serious posts and on with the fun posts!\u00a0 Today I’m going to talk about everybody’s favorite subject: alcohol.\u00a0 (Well, maybe not everybody’s favorite!)\u00a0\u00a0Since this is a Korean blog,\u00a0let me\u00a0introduce an\u00a0alcoholic beverage native to Korea.\u00a0\u00a0It is called soju (\uc18c\uc8fc<\/strong>).\u00a0 Soju (\uc18c\uc8fc<\/strong>) is mainly made from rice, but other starches such as potatoes and barley are sometimes used as well.\u00a0 Soju (\uc18c\uc8fc<\/strong>) is usually clear in color, but some are fruit flavored and have artifical dyes that make them look red or green.\u00a0 The South Korean government prohibits the alcohol content of soju (\uc18c\uc8fc<\/strong>) to be above 35%.\u00a0 As a result, many sojus (\uc18c\uc8fc<\/strong>)\u00a0contain an average of about 20% of alcohol content.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Korea is what I call a drinking culture.\u00a0 Now, I’m not saying that Korea is a nation of alcoholics!\u00a0 What makes an alcoholic?\u00a0 Well, I’m not sure, but Koreans don’t really have the stigma attached to alcohol like Americans do.\u00a0 What I mean is that soju (\uc18c\uc8fc<\/strong>) is often a medium for people to bond in situations they would not normally have the opportunity to do at work.\u00a0 Employers and employees in Korea sometimes work overtime shifts without extra pay.\u00a0 Naturally stress and fatigue builds up, creating a need for people to let their hair down.\u00a0 Sometimes an employer may offer to treat his employees after a long day of work.\u00a0 Usually, employees accept, because accepting an offer to drink is seen as accepting someone’s trust and friendship.<\/p>\n

The concept of going drinking with your employer may seem like an odd concept to Americans.\u00a0 In American society, there are certain boundaries carved out between one’s personal life and work life.\u00a0 In Korean society, these boundaries are less distinct.\u00a0 If you’re someone who likes to drink, you’ll do fine in Korea.\u00a0 If you’re not a particularly tolerant drinker like me and you refuse to drink often, you may offend some of your co-workers.\u00a0 Just to be polite, I would suggest that you take at least a sip and perhaps apologize with a jesonghapnida (\uc8c4\uc1a1\ud569\ub2c8\ub2e4<\/strong>) which means I’m sorry in Korean.\u00a0 You may also want to add, surul chal mot heyo (\uc218\ub97c \uc798 \uba4b \ud574\uc694<\/strong>) which literally means “I don’t really do alcohol well” with the intended meaning being that you aren’t an avid drinker.<\/p>\n

If you do decide to go out drinking with your boss, here are some alcohol etiquette rules you should follow.\u00a0 When you pour a drink for your boss, make sure both hands touch the bottle.\u00a0 If both hands don’t touch the bottle, at least place your left hand on your right arm with your right hand pouring the drink.\u00a0 Using both hands is a sign of respect so remember to do that.\u00a0 Also, remember that it’s a bit direct and frank to drink with your face toward your boss.\u00a0 When you bring the glass to your lips, make sure you turn your head away from your boss at least 45 degrees away from your boss.\u00a0 Think of this way: since Koreans have a tendency to sit close together, drinking with the your face toward the other person would allow the person to see and hear you gulp down your drink, and that is just not an attractive sight!<\/p>\n

So, have fun drinking and don’t forget to say konbe\u00a0(\uac74\ubc30<\/strong>)\u00a0which means\u00a0cheers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now, enough with the serious posts and on with the fun posts!\u00a0 Today I’m going to talk about everybody’s favorite subject: alcohol.\u00a0 (Well, maybe not everybody’s favorite!)\u00a0\u00a0Since this is a Korean blog,\u00a0let me\u00a0introduce an\u00a0alcoholic beverage native to Korea.\u00a0\u00a0It is called soju (\uc18c\uc8fc).\u00a0 Soju (\uc18c\uc8fc) is mainly made from rice, but other starches such as potatoes…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2691,375273],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alcohol","tag-culture"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}