How to not embarrass yourself when drinking in South Korea

This might shock you, but there’s a lot of drinking that goes down at the Olympics.

You’ve got thousands of media members stacked on top of each other and removed from their families with both a 24/7 beer tent and convenience store a short walk away. How else do you think we’re going to unwind after a 15-hour day at the office?

We also happen to be in South Korea, where drinking is deeply rooted in the culture and history of the country. The Koreans drink more liquour than anybody in the world with soju being the drink of choice. If you haven’t tried soju, think of it like vodka light — it’s clear, smooth, around 16-20% and you can get a 375 ml bottle of the stuff for less than $2.

But before you start passing out shots, it’s important to learn the rules.

So we decided to venture out of the stuffy beer tent in the media village and meet up with our friends at HuffPost Korea for a lesson on drinking etiquette.

They schooled us on the basics of pouring and receiving drinks, respecting your elders along with a few party tricks. And because drinking and eating go hand in hand in Korea, we also hit up a local fish market where we saw our dinner sliced up in front of us and put on a plate for us to take to a nearby restaurant.

When in Rome, right?

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