http://www.cnngo.com/seoul/drink/business-travelers-guide-drinking-korea-213012
In Korea, it's said that the success of your business roughly correlates to how well you can drink ... and how respectful you are to your companions while downing bomb shots by the bucketful.
Most companies in Korea have hoesik (literally, dinner with coworkers; figuratively, official eating/drinking fests involving multiple rounds at multiple venues) at least once a month and sometimes every week.
For the foreign business traveler, using your foreignness as an excuse to bow out will get you only so far.
Rules of the game
"Drinking etiquette is the first thing you teach foreign guests," says Bryan Do, a Korean-American director at the Korean branch of a U.S. company.
"It was shocking when I first arrived in Korea. My boss was a graduate of Korea University [renowned known for its hardy drinking culture] and at my first hoesik, we started out with everyone filling a beer glass with soju, and downing it on the spot. That was just the beginning."
Opening up
For Koreans, drinking is considered a way to get to know what someone is really like.
"I didn't really like it in the beginning," says Charles Lee, a Korean-Canadian who came to Korea a year ago to work for a Korean company. "I was like, 'Why are you making me drink something when I don't want to?' But once I understood the meaning behind it, I appreciated it more."
"There are just some things you can't say at work or talk about over lunch -- people who talk about work at lunch are losers -- but when someone offers you a glass of soju it's an invitation which means that they want to listen to you," says Lee. "I thought Koreans were impersonal before I drank with them, so the whole context is important."
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