You have to respect a country where old women take shots of soju with every other bite of food at dinner. Soju, by the way, tastes and feels like watered-down vodka.
I went out with my co-workers the other night and watched a 63-year-old Korean woman slowly develope eyelids.
Respect.
On the subject of drinking and work my brother, whose an expert at the former and amateur at the latter, has this to say:
"They told me at work. Oh, this is embarrassing. They told me not to come into work sober anymore."
This is unsurprising from the man whose current facebook status is "take me out to the curb... I'm trashed." (spelled suspiciously accurately)
But getting trashed is something that happens more often than you might expect in this country of overachievers and amatuer professionals. In Korea, the more you drink, the better you're thought to be at your job. Unless you're a young woman. Then you're a lush.
If you are a man, after work you are pretty much required to go out with your co-workers and drink. And not just a simple cocktail to enjoy while complaining about your other co-workers. No, you get trashed-- taken to the curb-- drinking everything from beer to soju to beer mixed with soju to CABOOMS! as my boyfriend so excitedly revealed me.
Car bombs he meant to say.
Driven to the curb.
For these business outings, I'm told one can always opt out, but will run the risk of being seen as a condemning jerk, risking even more the possibility of ever being promoted. And so, one of my earliest lessons on Korean culture was as follows: If your boss offers you a drink. Drink it.
Check. And check.
So I think back to the United States. Have I been gone so long? Is this how it is at home?
I reminisce on scenes from the summer my college friends came home. I wanted to skip work to drink with them and so, doing the only logical thing, I called up my boss and feigned a voice paralized by novacaine.
"I jussss wen to da denis and I ha too much nodacin in ma mout to come to wuh."
"Okay," my boss says. "I'll see you Wednesday."
"Okay! Thanks!" I say excitedly. "See you then!"
And I didn't have to work Wednesday either because it turns out if you're lieing about being paralyzed by novacaine, you can't articulate your excitement when you realize you've been let off the hook because you lied about being paralyzed by novacaine.
No. No, I remember now. Wanting to drink, drinking, or having drank the night before always made me worse at my job.
But, ah! I'm struck by a novel concept: What if you don't like to drink? And so I pause our walk and throw my friend the curve ball.
"But what if your boss doesn't like to drink and therefore doesn't require you to go out after work?"
"If that were the case," he says, "he wouldn't be my boss."
I went out with my co-workers the other night and watched a 63-year-old Korean woman slowly develope eyelids.
Respect.
On the subject of drinking and work my brother, whose an expert at the former and amateur at the latter, has this to say:
"They told me at work. Oh, this is embarrassing. They told me not to come into work sober anymore."
This is unsurprising from the man whose current facebook status is "take me out to the curb... I'm trashed." (spelled suspiciously accurately)
But getting trashed is something that happens more often than you might expect in this country of overachievers and amatuer professionals. In Korea, the more you drink, the better you're thought to be at your job. Unless you're a young woman. Then you're a lush.
If you are a man, after work you are pretty much required to go out with your co-workers and drink. And not just a simple cocktail to enjoy while complaining about your other co-workers. No, you get trashed-- taken to the curb-- drinking everything from beer to soju to beer mixed with soju to CABOOMS! as my boyfriend so excitedly revealed me.
Car bombs he meant to say.
Driven to the curb.
For these business outings, I'm told one can always opt out, but will run the risk of being seen as a condemning jerk, risking even more the possibility of ever being promoted. And so, one of my earliest lessons on Korean culture was as follows: If your boss offers you a drink. Drink it.
Check. And check.
So I think back to the United States. Have I been gone so long? Is this how it is at home?
I reminisce on scenes from the summer my college friends came home. I wanted to skip work to drink with them and so, doing the only logical thing, I called up my boss and feigned a voice paralized by novacaine.
"I jussss wen to da denis and I ha too much nodacin in ma mout to come to wuh."
"Okay," my boss says. "I'll see you Wednesday."
"Okay! Thanks!" I say excitedly. "See you then!"
And I didn't have to work Wednesday either because it turns out if you're lieing about being paralyzed by novacaine, you can't articulate your excitement when you realize you've been let off the hook because you lied about being paralyzed by novacaine.
No. No, I remember now. Wanting to drink, drinking, or having drank the night before always made me worse at my job.
But, ah! I'm struck by a novel concept: What if you don't like to drink? And so I pause our walk and throw my friend the curve ball.
"But what if your boss doesn't like to drink and therefore doesn't require you to go out after work?"
"If that were the case," he says, "he wouldn't be my boss."
