Cultural Post 4

[Wonjun Kim]

The drinking age in Korea is 19. When students graduate from high school and enter college, they are mostly 19 years old. This early drinking age leads to a lot of drinking in Korean students. Some clubs in Korea require you to drink a whole bunch as a part of their initiation. Because Korea has such a huge night life, almost everyone drinks very frequently and in extreme amounts. Even in the your job, there are a lot of 회식 or getting food after you get off work, and in these gatherings, they drink so much alcohol. Sometimes, they go to seconds or thirds to drink more alcohol. In this kind of environment it is almost impossible to avoid these meetings and alcohol especially if you are the youngest one or the newest one. This kind of culture makes you drink a lot even if you don't want to. Because of the low drinking age, a lot of students lose control of how much they drink at first.

[June Choi]

Your cultural post on the drinking atmosphere in Korea made me slightly sad because of how pressured younger people are to drink due to the prevalence of alcohol in any meeting or gathering one goes to. While I think the lower drinking age is good because it can allow for people to be more responsible while drinking from a younger age instead of rebelling against the law, it can also be detrimental to their health as they start drinking earlier on. I think the initiation process for clubs in Korea is similar to that of fraternities and sororities in America.