Korean Company Dinner Culture: What Really Happens at a Hoesik? | Life in Korea

Korean company dinner culture, from samgyeopsal and hoesik to nunchi, second rounds and noraebang.

You are working at a Korean company when, late one afternoon, a coworker asks:

“Are you free for dinner tonight? We’re going out together.”

As the workday ends, several people leave the office and head to a samgyeopsal restaurant nearby.

Pork belly sizzles on the grill. The exhaust hood hums above the table. From somewhere behind you comes a burst of laughter, followed by the clink of glasses.

A few hours ago, everyone was sitting behind computer screens talking about deadlines. Now they are gathered around the same grill, turning pieces of pork and passing food across the table.

This kind of company gathering is commonly called a hoesik (회식) in Korea.

But there is no single version of a Korean hoesik.

Some teams meet for lunch. Others have dinner without alcohol. A company might choose a performance, exhibition or another group activity instead. Even within the same company, the atmosphere can be completely different from one team to another.

The familiar combination of samgyeopsal and soju is simply one scene from Korea’s long and changing company-dinner culture.

So what might you actually see if you find yourself at one?

Who Gets the Tongs?

The pork hits the grill.

A minute later, someone reaches for the metal tongs and starts turning it.

Stories about Korean workplace dinners in the past sometimes feature the newest or youngest employee taking charge of the grill. People may remember watching the table, noticing what needed to be done and stepping in before anyone asked.

That kind of awareness is sometimes connected with a Korean word you will hear in many other situations too: nunchi (눈치).

But don’t mistake this for a rule that says the youngest employee must cook everyone’s meat.

The person who is best at grilling might take over. A senior coworker may cook for the juniors. Everyone might simply grill whatever they want.

If this is your first hoesik, you do not need to sit nervously wondering, “Am I the junior person here? Should I grab the tongs?”

The more interesting part of the scene may be the grill itself.

Everyone is sharing food around one hot plate, and while they wait for the next pieces of pork to cook, conversations have time to wander somewhere beyond work.

The Coworker You Didn’t Meet at the Office

The evening may begin with familiar subjects.

“How’s the project going?”

“This week was really busy, wasn’t it?”

Then the food arrives, another piece of meat goes onto the grill, and the conversation starts drifting.

Someone talks about what they did over the weekend. Someone else mentions a drama they are watching or a place they want to visit. A quiet coworker turns out to be surprisingly funny. A manager who normally talks about nothing but work reveals an unexpected hobby.

Of course, not every table suddenly becomes intimate.

Some teams remain quiet. Some talk about work all evening.

But moving from the office to a shared meal can reveal sides of coworkers that are harder to see across a desk.

That is why describing hoesik simply as “Korean coworkers drinking together” misses part of the picture.

For many gatherings, eating together matters at least as much as the alcohol.

Why Is Everyone Holding the Glass With Two Hands?

Then you notice something else.

Someone pours a drink, and the person receiving it holds the glass with both hands.

In relatively formal Korean situations where age or workplace seniority matters, you may see people give and receive drinks or other objects using two hands. Sometimes one hand holds the glass while the other lightly supports the wrist or arm.

There is also a traditional drinking gesture in which a person turns slightly away when drinking in front of someone older or more senior.

You might see it.

You might not.

Among close coworkers, people may barely think about these formalities at all.

If you are new to Korea, there is little reason to spend the entire dinner trying to remember a complicated etiquette manual. Watching what the people around you do will usually tell you far more about that particular table.

What If You Don’t Drink?

For a long time, an image closely associated with Korean company dinners has been a table with samgyeopsal, green soju bottles and beer glasses.

Someone might raise a glass and call out “Geonbae!”—cheers—and everyone joins the toast.

But alcohol does not have to be the center of a hoesik today.

A person who does not drink may have water or a soft drink instead. Some company dinners involve little alcohol, and others have none at all.

So not drinking does not mean you cannot experience a hoesik.

Sitting around the same table, sharing food and talking with coworkers can be the important part.

Dinner Is Finished. Why Is Everyone Going Somewhere Else?

The last pieces of pork disappear.

You assume the evening is over.

Then somebody asks:

“Who wants to go for i-cha?”

Welcome to another bit of Korean vocabulary.

The first place of the evening can be called il-cha (1차), the “first round.” Moving to another place becomes i-cha (2차), the “second round.”

For years, one familiar image of Korean company dinners involved moving from one place to another as the evening continued.

The first round might be samgyeopsal with soju or beer.

For the second round, people might move somewhere else for more food and drinks. Chicken and beer could appear—a combination Koreans famously call chimaek (치맥), from “chicken” and maekju, the Korean word for beer.

And if the night kept going?

There could be a third round at a noraebang (노래방), Korea’s private karaoke rooms.

This is where the office’s quietest employee might suddenly grab the microphone while coworkers clap or shake tambourines. Stories of serious-looking managers unexpectedly singing old favorites at noraebang have long been part of the colorful memories surrounding Korean office dinners.

The progression from a first round to a second and sometimes a third has been a familiar image of hoesik culture for many years.

But don’t arrive in Korea expecting every company dinner to become a late-night karaoke marathon.

Today, some teams simply eat dinner and go home.

Others let anyone interested continue to another place. Some gatherings involve little or no alcohol. And some never have a second round at all.

Even for Korean employees, “What time will tonight’s hoesik end?” can still be a question with no obvious answer.

And Then There Is Nunchi

At your first Korean company dinner, you may find yourself quietly running through questions.

Who starts eating first?

Should I hold my glass with two hands?

Am I supposed to grill the meat?

Do I have to go to the second round?

Korean coworkers do not arrive carrying a rulebook either.

Often they look around, notice what other people are doing and adjust naturally to the mood of the group.

That brings us back to nunchi.

Nunchi is difficult to capture with a single English word. It does not simply mean pleasing the boss.

It can describe an awareness of what is happening around you—how other people are reacting, what the atmosphere feels like and what response seems appropriate in that moment.

A hoesik gives you plenty of little opportunities to see it.

One person grills the meat. Another keeps the conversation going. Someone drinks soju while the person beside them has a soda. Some people leave after dinner while others decide to continue.

There is no single script.

Not Every Korean Hoesik Looks Like This

Samgyeopsal and soju followed by chimaek and perhaps noraebang is one of the enduring images associated with Korean company-dinner culture.

It is not a description of every Korean workplace today.

Company dinners can look very different now. Some teams have a short dinner and leave early. Some rarely drink. Others replace an evening gathering with lunch, coffee, a performance, an exhibition or another activity.

Even two departments in the same company can have completely different habits.

So if you encounter samgyeopsal, soju, a second round or a karaoke room during a Korean company gathering, think of them as scenes from a culture with a long history—not a checklist of what every Korean employee is expected to do.

One evening, though, you may find yourself sitting with Korean coworkers around a sizzling grill.

You may watch people passing glasses with both hands, hear stories you would never hear during a meeting and discover that the quiet person from the next desk knows every word to an old song.

Then, just as you think everyone is about to head home, somebody may smile and ask:

“2차 갈 사람?”

“Who’s up for a second round?”

By then, hoesik may no longer feel like a Korean word you learned from a dictionary.

It will have a scene attached to it.

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