Workshops: Korean for Party Time

In South Korea, workshops are an important part of workplace culture. "Workshops" are exactly what they sound like: a chance for a company's employees to travel together to some far off corner of Korea so they can sight-see, eat expensive food and drink themselves silly, all on the company's dime.

If you're now thinking, "That's exactly what a workshop doesn't sound like!" then don't worry, you're not alone.

I've gone to a few workshops during my stay here in Korea, and they're always a good time. I don't fully understand why these outings are called workshops and not "company retreats" in the first place, but you won't hear me complain. Any excuse to loosen my tie and have a little fun with the people I see more than my own family is fine by me.

"Loosen your tie? Have fun? You can't do that with your boss, think of the consequences!" In Korea, consequences are more likely to materialize if you don't loosen your tie, so for your sake I hope 1.) you're a strong drinker, and 2.) you like soju, because there's a high probability the boss likes soju and that's what he's going to be ordering for everybody (I personally don't like the stuff, it gives me a splitting headache every time I touch it, but fortunately I've gotten pretty skilled at swapping out the contents of my shot glass for water when no one is watching).

For this particular outing, we all piled into a chartered bus and drove three hours to the eastern sea, where our reserved pension awaited. I slept most of the way there; when I awoke it was dark, there was an ocean, and I had no idea where we were other than somewhere on the east coast of Korea. Later I would learn we had driven to the harbor city of Donghae, located in Gangwan province. From what I could tell of my short time in Donghae it was a pleasant little place, full of the things you would expect from a port town: boats, a lighthouse, fish, more fish, still more fish, so on and so forth.

Dinner was of course fish. I'm not a huge fan of seafood to begin with, but I've been having stomach issues recently so for my sake I avoided eating the more foreign-looking dishes. Meanwhile the soju was pouring freely, and while I was enjoying my harmless shots of water and pretending to be inebriated it was amusing to observe my coworkers get a little crazy. Noraebang followed (what the Koreans call karaoke) and the less said of that the better (though I did belt out a fantastic rendition of "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen). By this point I was reaching for the flask of rum I had tucked away in my jacket pocket, because I didn't want to be the only person in our group not acting like a goof.

When the sun rose, so did only some of the teachers. That includes me, because I had the foresight to stay away from the soju. Pretty pleased with myself for that move. The rest of the day was spent sight-seeing and eating: we hiked up to Mukho Lighthouse to take in the view; we drove to a fish market, where I saw fish so bizarre I could scarcely believe they were considered edible; we stopped by Chotdae Rock, which means candlestick in Korean, named so because of the natural shape of the rock; and for lunch we had beef. Glorious, wonderful beef.

When we finally got home I was dog tired. It was a fun workshop, mainly because I like this group of coworkers. There's a possibility I may not continue at this school next year, so I'm grateful we could make some memories this weekend.