Korean Drinking Games for Foreigners: Easy Rules for Your First Night Out
Korean drinking games for foreigners are easiest to learn when they require almost no Korean. Titanic, the soju bottle cap game, and the nunchi game are good places to start. Before getting into the games, there are a few drinking habits worth knowing.
Pouring and Drinking Basics
Nobody will stop the game if you get these wrong, but people do notice when you get them right.
- Use two hands when pouring a drink for or receiving one from someone older or senior to you. Hold the bottle or glass with both hands, or place one hand lightly on your wrist or forearm.
- Don’t pour your own glass. Someone else fills yours, and you fill theirs. If your glass is empty, the person next to you will usually notice before you say anything.
- Turn your head slightly to the side when drinking in front of someone older. Some people also angle their glass away a little.
- The first shot is often a group one, with everyone drinking together.
- Food comes with the drinks. Samgyeopsal, jeon, and jjigae served alongside alcohol are called anju. At many Korean drinking gatherings, food is a regular part of the table.
You don’t have to drink alcohol to join in. Plenty of people order a soft drink instead, and that’s widely accepted. You can play all the games below with soda or another nonalcoholic drink.
Somaek: The Soju and Beer Mix
Somaek is a mix of soju and beer. A common starting point is one part soju to two or three parts beer, though people have their own preferences. You might even hear a debate over the right ratio at the table. Some of the games below involve taking a drink when you lose, but you can always use a nonalcoholic drink instead.
Five Games You Can Learn in a Minute
Titanic
You’ll need a beer glass, a shot glass, soju, and beer. Fill the larger glass with beer and float an empty shot glass on top. Going around the table, each person pours a little soju into the shot glass. Whoever makes it sink loses the round.
The fun is in watching the shot glass get heavier without knowing exactly when it’ll sink. Everyone tends to watch closely, and the moment it finally goes under usually gets a reaction from the table.
Soju Bottle Cap Game
All you need is a soju bottle cap. Twist the narrow metal tail of the cap, then take turns flicking it with a finger. Whoever knocks the tail off loses the round.
Some groups play an Up & Down variation. The person who knocked off the tail checks the number inside the cap, and the others try to guess it using “higher” or “lower” as hints. The exact rules vary, so it’s worth asking how the group plays before starting.
Nunchi Game
No props needed. Everyone in the group tries to count upward from 1 to the number of players, calling out one number at a time. There’s no set order, so anyone can speak next. If two people say the same number at once, the round ends and they lose. Some groups also make the last person to call out a number the loser.
Nunchi is the Korean habit of reading a room and picking up on social cues without everything being said out loud. The game puts that instinct to the test. It’s surprisingly easy to hesitate when everyone is waiting for someone else to speak.
Image Game
Someone asks a question like “Who here is most likely to oversleep?” Everyone counts “one, two, three” and points at someone at the same time. The person who gets the most fingers pointed at them loses. Depending on the group’s rules, they might drink or choose someone else to drink.
Questions can be silly, harmless, or a little revealing, depending on how well everyone knows each other. It’s an easy game to start with because you don’t need to know any Korean to understand what’s happening.
Son Byung-ho Game (Up & Down Fingers)
Everyone holds up five fingers. Going around the table, each person says something that might apply to them, such as “Fold a finger if you wear glasses.” Anyone the statement applies to folds a finger down. The first person to fold all five fingers loses.
The statements can be about almost anything, which makes it easy for a mixed group to join in. If you’re unfamiliar with the game, watch one round first and you’ll probably get the idea.
If You’re Joining Your First Table
You don’t need to memorize the rules beforehand. If you’re unsure how a game works, ask someone to demonstrate a round. People may play the same game a little differently from one table to another, so it’s perfectly fine to check the rules before you start.
And if you’re wondering about the perfect somaek ratio, don’t expect everyone to agree. That’s part of the conversation, too.
Further Reading
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