What are you planning to do at the end of this year? Some will go on a trip and some will stay at home spending time with families. According to a survey of Jobkorea, 20.5% of office workers and jobseekers answered that they will have drinking, singing, and dancing at year-end meetings. And interestingly, 20.1% of them said that they will have year-end meetings in the form of parties.
We can hear the word "party" very often these days. However, party was not so familiar to us only three years ago, except for common parties like Christmas parties, Halloween parties or birthday parties. It was a word that only certain people could share and talk about. But, now, the "party culture" is soaked in our society where parties are held everyday. Many companies organizing parties and events have been formed in recent years and a new profession called "party planner" was created.
In Korea, there are roughly three types of parties; social party, promotion party and club party. In social parties, people come to find lovers or business partners. The two main sponsors of social parties are the social club 'Club Friends' and the marriage information company 'Duo'. A staff of Duo said, "People like parties in which they can meet a lot of new and various people at once. They prefer parties rather than a man-to-man meeting." Also, companies can advertise their new products by holding promotion parties. For example, a cosmetics company can advertise their new eye-shadow by offering samples for free at the party. Club parties, the most popular and common parties among the young generation are held on weekends in clubs around Hong-ik University and Apgujeong, with special DJ's and themes.
Then what would be the point of having parties? First of all, people can meet new people at parties. By talking with various people, they can find people who have the same tastes. They can also make business partners who will be beneficial to them. Eventually, through these meetings with various people, they can be more socialized and develop their social competitiveness. Moreover, parties are beneficial to both sponsors and party-goers, since sponsors can advertize their products effectively and party-goers can get the products for free.
However, these things do not always go the right way. Some people assert that most parties cause extravagance. In fact, it costs a lot of things to prepare for parties. People have to buy decent clothes, pay the fee and even learn party manners. So, the social party culture is still restricted to a certain category of people. Also, parties can lead people to have ostentatious relationships with others. Indeed, it is true that many party-goers participate in parties to make lovers with good educational backgrounds or wealth and partners who can give them benefits. Therefore, they face each other full of kindness which would not be 100% sincere and this will eventually lead them to have showy relationships which are not from their true minds.
These problems are caused because there are only limited kinds of parties existing in Korea.
If we look at western countries where parties actually came from, there are much more diverse kinds of parties.
Have you ever heard about a "potluck party"? It is a party where every participant brings a dish. Potluck parties are popular among students or the young generation, since they do not impose a burden on the host. A shower party is a party that women made to share friendship by giving households goods as a present. Shower means that friendship is poured like rain, so the participants of this party are only close friends. Also, there is a barbecue party where people just gather at the garden of the host's house and have food that is done on the barbecue grate. Unlike other parties, there is also a party held in the afternoon which is a "Tea party". A tea party is a social gathering of women from England. It is a simple party with cakes, cookies, sandwiches and tea. These are the parties that are mostly held inside a house.
There are also parties outside houses. A dinner party is a party that stands on formality most. All participants of a dinner party are required to dress up and they are not allowed to come without an invitation. A reception is an official party where public institutions or companies hold a party with certain purposes. A cocktail party is a well-known party held usually before dinner. People can have various drinks and alcohol and talk with other people freely. A ball is a party where people have social dancing. In this party, men should propose dancing to the women that they were introduced to.
Like these, parties are much more varied in western countries. It is true that Korea also has more diverse kinds of parties compared to the past, but most parties in Korea are held without distinctive characterictics or purposes.
The party culture of Korea has its root in club parties where people drink and dance to the loud music all night long. They are pretty different from western parties where people are introduced to others by the host and share social fellowship. Since Korean party culture is too much concentrated in club parties, other kinds of parties cannot be activated and developed.
Party experts view that the present party culture will stay for about 3 years from now on and then a new party culture will be created. The new party culture should have more diverities and peculiarity. Also, people participating in parties should know that parties are not the places to meet people by studying or to sell and buy products. The most important thing in parties must be to meet people without hoping for any gains.
By Kim So-young
International reporter