Because of a working or personal relationship with the people involved, I’m not at liberty to say, but the variety of reasons come from what you state below (a greater number of not just female employees, but also male employees who actually think it’s important to go home to the wife and kids), problems involving an actual incident (e.g., drunk driving and or hospitalization of an employee or student due to alcohol poisoning), managment’s realization that a hungover employee is not an effective employee, sexual harassment or fear of sexual harassment during drinking, etc.

To be fair, I too have heard of a (very) few companies changing the location of their 회식 일차 from 삼겹살 and 갈비 restaurants to places like Outback and Bennigans; I think a walk-through of those places, which, at least in Outback’s case, are proliferating like a virus on a hot day, are a testament to the de-boozing of Korean corporate functions.

mostly companies with a higher percentage of female employees. But that doesn’t mean that those who want to aren’t still going to bars for 이차 and 삼차.

Yeah, but it’s often fewer and fewer companies that do that. One institution I work for hardly even bothers suggesting it because so few people will go. And they almost never get to round three.

The two biggest factors for this institution were (a) a Bennigan’s being built right across the street, and (b) a fear of getting caught at a sobriety checkpoint. It has emboldened the “family men” (and women) to suggest less beer-intensive drinking events.

To be fair, I also know of some places that are doing the opposite. As a reaction to some people and their excuses why they can’t drink, one person I know in a professional school (far outside of Seoul) told me that the head of their student group said, in all seriousness, that the only way you would get away with not drinking until you’re shit-faced (my description, not hers) is if you bring an actual note from the doctor describing why you shouldn’t be drinking.

A few organizations are making public proclamations of “changes in policy” (wink, wink). How many of these people have lost their jobs as a result of (strictly) drinking-related incidents? As long as I continue to hear stories straight from the horse’s mouth about employees spending mornings sleeping at their desk, or read stories about presidents of major companies gleefully teaching a conference room full of people how to make 폭탄주, I’ll remain skeptical of these “institutional changes”.

Well, none of the places I am thinking of would have reason to want their decisions made public, so I don’t think you’d read about it anyway; you’d only know if you were there or somehow associated with them personally.

At any rate, there’s always going to be drinking, there’s always going to be drunk driving, there’s always going to be hungover employees (some who might choose to just go out and drink with old classmates instead), so even if the trend I’m talking about turns into a giant wave, you’d still hear about — and see — people as you describe. If the number of passed-out folks you see sitting or lying on the street in Shinchon or Yŏŭido dropped from 100 to 20, that’d still be 20.

No, I’m not being naive. Off the top of my head, I can think of a dozen different corporate or academic entities which have curtailed or eliminated company- or school-centered drinking activities because of recent changes in attitudes or liability over some incident.

Who are these corporate and academic entities? To be fair, I too have heard of a (very) few companies changing the location of their 회식 일차 from 삼겹살 and 갈비 restaurants to places like Outback and Bennigans; mostly companies with a higher percentage of female employees. But that doesn’t mean that those who want to aren’t still going to bars for 이차 and 삼차. A few organizations are making public proclamations of “changes in policy” (wink, wink). How many of these people have lost their jobs as a result of (strictly) drinking-related incidents? As long as I continue to hear stories straight from the horse’s mouth about employees spending mornings sleeping at their desk, or read stories about presidents of major companies gleefully teaching a conference room full of people how to make 폭탄주, I’ll remain skeptical of these “institutional changes”.

With junior high school kids? College, yes (I’ve done my share of M.T.), maybe even high school, but I’ve not heard of that going on between middle school kids and their teachers.

And with this happening at a high-profile institution, yeah, I could see someone coming down on the management of that place and making sure some heads roll.

Who mentioned teachers drinking with junior high school kids? I was implying that the widely-known practice of teachers providing alcohol to high school students on school trips suggests a cultural mindset that tolerates teachers going out for drinks without their junior high school students. So that I won’t be misunderstood, I want to emphasize that not every high school teacher does this; but more than a few do. What isn’t tolerated is sexual abuse of students, so this is where you and I agree. If the allegations prove to be true, I also expect someone will come down on the management of that place. But because abuse (allegedly) took place, not drinking.

(Btw, the Agent 95 bit was meant to be funny, not snide.)

No, I’m not being naïve. Off the top of my head, I can think of a dozen different corporate or academic entities which have curtailed or eliminated company- or school-centered drinking activities because of recent changes in attitudes or liability over some incident.

Haven’t you heard about the student (and teacher) drinking on high school trips? The alcohol provided by the teachers, of course. I’m not saying it’s right or excusable, but it’s deeply ingrained in the culture.

With junior high school kids? College, yes (I’ve done my share of M.T.), maybe even high school, but I’ve not heard of that going on between middle school kids and their teachers.

And with this happening at a high-profile institution, yeah, I could see someone coming down on the management of that place and making sure some heads roll.

Baduk wrote:
I am very sure that no Mr. Kim exists

Give me enough time, and I’ll line up six million of them for you.

The title says, “A teacher in English-only village sexually assaulted students”. Yet, the main story left out all details. There was no rape in the story. Not even hints of sexual touching. The article left out all details.

Why? Because this YTN reporter is cooking up a fabrication. He is riding on the recent incident about sexual touching and writing a fiction. This type of fabrication should be exposed in Korean newspaper business but has rarely been done. Shameful exploitation of human weakness. Sex sells. And, anti-Americanism to boot. Nobody checks or demands the reporter to produce evidences. The reporters have liscence to fabricate!

I am very sure that no Mr. Kim exists and no teacher has entered the dorm and sexually-assaulted students because none of this made into three big newspapers, Chosun, DongA and Joins.

It is a fiction. Forgeddaboutit.