Alcohol is a huge problem in Korea. Every Friday night when I get off work, I go home to change out of work clothes, and get into Friday relax clothes. I head back to Pagoda to meet up with Patrick and a few other friends to socialize. It's so nice to go out and socialize like everyone else in Seoul does every night and now we can finally join the crowd. Yet we still are not part of the crowd????
Here people drink until they have lost all control. Why would a girl think it is ok to drink until she is no longer capable of holding her head up and her boyfriend is dragging her physically holding her head up by her hair? Why is it ok to be laying on a curb at midnight with a pile of puke below you? People walk by as if that is normal and they must of not had enough food to absorb the alcohol.
I actually had a student leave the second half of my morning class session because he was still drunk because he had 10 bottles of soju at a business meeting. Granted I was impressed that he showed up at all; class begins at 6:40am. It's part of the business culture to have late night meetings with alcohol and all people at the meeting should be drinking.
As I witness the drinking culture it only makes me want to drink less. Korean beer is no way comparable to the great northwest and even the cheap wine is expensive. $20 for a bottle of yellow tail. So then why do Koreans drink so much? I thought about why I don't drink very much?? The lack of control when you have more than a person should. Partly because I can be anal-retentive and always want to make an educated decision. Control. We can discuss my control issues on another occasion.
Typical Korean culture in the work force has a lack of control, especially if you are not in a high level position. They are expected to do as they are told and not add their opinion. Can you imagine sitting in a meeting and not contributing to the conversation? No one asks what you think of the new structure or plan to be implemented? This is where the company is going and here are the changes. I believe this type of lifestyle constructs the obscene amount of drinking here. So much control on a person can make them more susceptible to the things that allow a person to lose total control.
You're probably thinking of a long list of things that could just as easily suffice and not be as painful as some of their hangovers, I would imagine. For some reason alcohol is just that quick fix along with instant gratification. Not all people are like this here, it's just there is definitely a higher amount of my students that say they will be doing a lot of drinking or being drunk this weekend; and as their teacher can be weird. Mostly because I worked in a high school for the last three years and students tend to withold that type of information from their current instructor.
Ok, so this wasn't the most pleasant topic to write about, but it has been lingering in the back of my mind for quite some time. Let us end on a more pleasant note.
Clandestine: I taught some of my early advanced students how to use this word in a conversation, regarding drinking. They are really good at remembering vocabulary but have a difficult time applying it in their daily conversations. They also asked why Americans like to exaggerate so much when they talk. I said they are more like hyperbolic statements in which they are using a literary device to amplify the importance or significance for that detail.
Nice huh?
1 comment:
I am a recovered alcoholic. I have not had a drink in more than ten years. I have traveled in Asia before, and it is difficult sometimes. There is little understanding of those who choose not to drink. For me, it was a life and death decision. I do not judge those who drink, because for me it was a matter of personal self-preservation. The question is, how does someone like me travel in Korea without being ostracized?
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