In Korea, drinking together is social glue — and it comes with real etiquette. The essentials: pour and receive with two hands for anyone senior, never fill your own glass, wait until glasses are empty to refill, and raise a toast with geonbae (건배), "cheers." Get these right and you are a welcome guest at any table.
None of it is hard, and locals are forgiving of visitors. But a little fluency here goes a long way.
Geonbae and "one shot"
The all-purpose toast is geonbae — glasses up, "cheers." For a bottoms-up finish, Koreans borrow English into the Konglish cheer wonsyat (원샷), "one shot," though nobody expects a visitor to drain every glass.
건배
geonbae
Cheers!
원샷
wonsyat
Bottoms up! ("one shot")
저는 술 못 마셔요
jeoneun sul mot masyeoyo
I can't drink alcohol
The core rules
A handful of customs cover almost every situation, and they all come back to respect for whoever is older or more senior.
- Two hands. When you pour for an elder or receive a drink from one, use both hands — one on the bottle or glass, the other lightly supporting your forearm.
- Never pour your own. You fill others' glasses; someone fills yours. Keep an eye on your neighbors' cups.
- Refill only empties. Topping up a glass that is still half full is not done — wait until it is empty.
- Turn away to sip. With someone much senior, turn your head slightly aside and shield the glass as you drink. It is the classic gesture of respect.
Most of this ritual plays out at hoesik (회식), the after-work team dinner. Hoesik is where colleagues bond over food and drink, and where the pouring customs matter most — reading the table in that moment is exactly the kind of awareness Koreans call nunchi.
What's in the glass
Korean drinking has its own small vocabulary. Knowing the words makes ordering — and joining in — much easier.
| Korean | Romanization | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 소주 | soju | Korean distilled spirit |
| 맥주 | maekju | beer |
| 소맥 | somaek | soju-and-beer mix |
| 안주 | anju | food eaten while drinking |
That last one matters: anju (안주) is the food that always accompanies drinking — fried chicken, stews, seafood, anything shareable. Drinking without anju on the table strikes many Koreans as slightly odd, so expect dishes to arrive alongside the bottles.
How to decline gracefully
You never have to drink more than you want, and turning a glass down is increasingly accepted.
A warm, smiling jeoneun sul mot masyeoyo (저는 술 못 마셔요) — "I can't drink alcohol" — is understood and respected. To stay part of the ritual, keep pouring for others and toast with whatever is in your glass. Nobody minds a sober guest who joins in the geonbae.
For the respect built into all this pouring and receiving, it helps to understand Korean honorifics — the same senior-and-junior awareness runs right through the meal.
Keep learning Korean
Master a few phrases and a little table etiquette, and a Korean drinking night turns from intimidating to genuinely fun. Warm up with our free Korean food and dining phrases, then practice them with audio and spaced repetition in the Pretalk app before your first geonbae.
