Korean Job Discussion Forums

[stumptown]

On a recent night out with some K-pals we went to a local soju bang and started pounding the shots. I matched them shot for shot but around the fifth or sixth bottle, they began to tell me I drink too much. I argued that the same could be said about them since we're all drinking the same amount. Their response came down to the fact that soju is "Korean whiskey" and because I'm a foreigner I shouldn't drink so much soju. I also argued that can last longer than any of them and set out to prove it. Seven bottles later one went home, one vomited and one passed out. Does anyone else hear that kind of crap when it somes to drinking with Koreans?

[Hollywoodaction]

Nah, I don't drink soju. It's rotgut. I prefer real whisky.

[peppermint]

No, but then I tend not to drink with people likely to spew nationalist crap at me.

[Xerxes]

I think that they were just giving you a compliment, in a strange way granted. Maybe they said their English in a bad way. They did seem to admire your drinking ability though since they said that about you.

I used to go drinking with some natives who started out with a glass of beer to "clean the palate." Then start in on the soju. Several bottles later, we always ended the night at a beer hof that had dark beer on tap. We would order a pitcher of that, and usually I can't remember how the night finished after that. These guys were such heavy drinkers that just any one alcohol wouldn't do it for them anymore, so they would mix drinks like that. But they would do it like old citizens, cordial like, not with the sophomoric boiler makers or "bomb drinks," as the natives call it in Korean.

Any society has its heavy drinkers, they just probably meant that you drink a lot or drink as much as they do, which they find surprising somehow. Offer to go drinking again, and they probably will. You're one of their clique now, I think.

[HapKi]

Possibly, they wanted to play the good host and stay out with you till you had had enough. And since you never said stop, they said what they said.
Sounds like good people to me.

[nautilus]

Quote stumptown:

[EFLtrainer]

Sounds to me like the same kind of thinking that goes with kimchi being too hot, Korean is too difficult, etc.

[jajdude]

Soju is hard, even in the lighter version. If you drink 7 bottles by yourself in a 24-48 hour period, then you will see how awful it is.

[sillywilly]

Soju's not whiskey, is it? I thought it was closer to wine. Anyway, I never had that problem. Girls didn't usually drink soju with me, at least not that I can remember. Just other drinks. And guys were always " One shot" "One shot". I was usually the one pouring it, though. Trying to be polite, despite what I later heard that could implie. I think I like soju more than most Koreans. Can't stomach beer so I used to go to the quickie-mart and sneak lemon soju into the nightclubs and drink it secretly. Thats only if they didn't serve it, of course. No, I'm not an alchy. I just really like soju.

[Wrench]

Soju is just plain gross.

[joe_doufu]

It's more like vodka, I think. I thought it was made from sweet potatoes, but now I know that's the japanese version, shochu. I guess it's distilled from rice.

[cruisemonkey]

According to Ks, I drink like pishee... and they love it.

I get 'pished' at the local hoff and they look after me... actually kick out the drunken ajoshies who try to start a fight for blood money.

[Hollywoodaction]

[cruisemonkey]

One could make imitation soju by diluting a bottle of vodka with an equal amount of water and adding a couple of teapoons of sugar.

It does not resemble any whisky: Scotch, Irish, Canadian or Burbon, in the slightest way. Ks call it "Korean whisky" simply for lack of a better term.

[Eunoia]

Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I do drink too much. But, how did you know?