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Review focus:alcohol, Korean drinking customs and rituals. Fun, entertainment, relaxation, doing businessand establishing business relationships
Asian Business Code Words Index NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company Asian Business Strategy & Street Intelligence Ezine
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Alcoholic drinks are the great facilitator, the oil of relationships in Korea - more so perhaps than in Japan and China, where drinking is also a vital part of making and nurturing personal, business, and political relationships. As in all Confucian-conditioned countries with highly sophisticated etiquette systems based on a hierarchy, drinking provides Koreans with justification for forgetting etiquette and behaving naturally and spontaneously. The big difference between Koreans and other Asians is that they tend to be more aggressive, more abandoned, in their drinking and in their expectations of others during drinking periods. Drinking to Koreans is not just a pleasant custom engaged in for fun and relaxation. It is an important ritual, sanctified by religion and by the ages, that plays a key role in bonding and friendship ties. Anyone who refuses to drink with them, without having an acceptable excuse, is regarded as rude and insulting and not someone they want to have as a friend or business associate. The ability to drink copious amounts, stay out until the early morning hours, and not miss work the following day is considered the mark of a strong, sincere person who can be trusted. (But in reality Korean business people who do this suffer from their excessive drinking. Those who are higher up often manage to take naps during the following workday, and it is common for some to sneak out for an hour or for a steam bath.) People who are not strong drinkers and choose to drink lightly, or to not drink at all, are forced to come up with a variety of subterfuges to avoid being labeled as unfriendly and untrustworthy. Some (as is common in Japan) feign drunkenness after one or two glasses. Others drink juice or tea disguised as whisky. It is not wise for foreign business people in Korea to try to keep up with their Korean hosts in drinking. It is a competition few of them can match, much less win. The main consideration is to be aware of the importance of drinking to Koreans and to devise a way of getting around the pressure to drink too much - keeping in mind, however, that one very sober foreign guest can spoil a whole evening for a group of Koreans who are duty-bound to drink until there are no restraints at all on their behavior. As in Japan and China, drinking etiquette requires that members of the party fill each other's glasses as a routine courtesy. If there is an official host, he or she will generally make a point of serving everyone at least one round sometime during the party. After the senior person has performed this ritual, other members of the party may do the same thing.
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Boye Lafayette de Mente is one of our regular monthly columnists at the 
| This month's column is excerpted from Korean Etiquette & Ethics in Business, by Boye Lafayette De Mente available from NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company |
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