Learn about Korean "membership training"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Misun: 여러분, 안녕하세요. KoreanClass101.com입니다. |
| Keith: Welcome to KoreanClass101.com’s Korean Culture Class Lesson Number 22 - Did You Attend the Korean Membership Training? |
| Misun: With us, you’ll learn to speak Korean with fun and effective lessons, as usual. |
| Keith: And, also, we’ll provide you with cultural insights. |
| Misun: And tips you won’t find in a text book. |
| Keith: All right. So, we’re in for a nice culture class today. And welcome back to our culture class series. My name is Keith Kim and I’m joined in the studio by Misun. |
| Misun: 안녕하세요. 미선입니다. |
| Keith: All right. So, Misun, what are we talking about in this lesson? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Misun: Today we want to talk about MT. |
| Keith: You know the first time I saw that word MT, I just thought it was an abbreviation for mountain. |
| Misun: Not really mountain. It’s an abbreviation of membership training. |
| Keith: That’s right, membership training. |
| Misun: Yeah. And we say 엠티 and then English alphabet can be M and T. |
| Keith: Right, you can also write that in 한글 as Well,. |
| Misun: 예, 맞아요. |
| Keith:It’s not really easy to tell what it means just by looking at those words, membership training, what does this mean? |
| Misun: That’s true, the meaning has kind of change in Korean to refer to something more like a friendship building trip or retreat. |
| Keith: And these MTs are mostly for university students, right? |
| Misun: 예. |
| Keith: So, how does it work? |
| Misun: Well, it really depends on what kind of group it is. Sometimes, junior and senior students of the same department of the university will go together. At other times, students of the same age, who want to build closer friendships will go on an MT together. |
| Keith: And sometimes, members of a university club go on an MT too, right? |
| Misun: 네, 맞아요. That’s to build a stronger team spirit and also to get closer to one another. |
| Keith: Okay, so it’s basically a trip people go together with the group. And what are some popular places for MT and how much does each person get to pay for this short trip? |
| Misun: Well, like you said, it’s usually a very short trip. Just for one night and two days, so people don’t usually travel to too faraway places. |
| Keith: So, if you’re in Seoul, where would you go? |
| Misun: Maybe the popular, popular places are 대성리, 강촌 and 가평. |
| Keith: How far are those places from downtown Seoul? |
| Misun: It’s about two hours by train. |
| Keith: Okay. |
| Misun: Not too far. But sometimes, when people want to go somewhere really close, they can go to 우이동, which is in Seoul and it takes less than an hour to get there. |
| Keith: Oh, that’s really convenient. |
| Misun: 예. |
| Keith: Which of these places have you been to most often? |
| Misun: I’ve been to 대성리, 강촌, 가평. They’re all like, the landscape is so beautiful. And then there’s rivers out there, so it’s really nice, but I have never been to 우이동. |
| Keith: Well, I’ve only been to 가평 once, but I went on a ski trip actually, and it was very nice. |
| Misun: Yeah. |
| Keith: Well, for those places - how much does it usually cost to go there? |
| Misun: It depends on whether some older senior students are coming along or not. |
| Keith: Well, that’s very key to Korean culture. |
| Misun: That’s true. |
| Keith: So if they do come along, if the older students do come along with younger students, they pay more, right? |
| Misun: Exactly. But if it’s just friends of the same age, forget about it. Usually about 15,000 won plus the fares for the train or the bus. |
| Keith: 15,000 won, that’s really cheap. |
| Misun: Yeah, it’s cheap. And it’s so much fun, too. |
| Keith: Well, tell us specifically, how is it? What do you do? |
| Misun: Well, we just drink . Drink. |
| Keith: Just drink? |
| Misun: Just keep drinking. |
| Keith: Okay. |
| Misun: Well, we don’t really just drink, but it’s mainly about drinking together. But don’t worry, people don’t drink like crazy these days. |
| Keith: Well, is that saying that they used to before? |
| Misun: Of course. I heard some stories of some bad examples, but I won’t tell it here. I think a lot of university students these days are learning to be moderate about drinking when they go on MTs. |
| Keith: So, what do you drink? |
| Misun: 소주. Do you know 소주? |
| Keith: Of course, it’s the cheapest. |
| Misun: Yeah. |
| Keith: The absolute Korean alcohol right. |
| Misun: 네, 맞아요. And we also buy some chips, some ramen noodles, which is for late night or the next morning and some other snacks too. |
| Keith: So basically food you eat when you are drinking? |
| Misun: Yeah, that’s true, exactly. I love ramen noodles after drinking. |
| Keith: Well, those are not too expensive, right? |
| Misun: No, not at all. But, you know, it seems like a cheap trip, but there is a lot of planning involved too. |
| Keith: Really? I mean, just get a bunch of people get a couple of drinks, get some food... |
| Misun: No, it’s not like that instantly. Before the group goes to the actual spot, one or two members of the group visit the place a few days before to book a room for everybody to play in and stay for the night. |
| Keith: Oh, so, it’s like scouting. You kind of scout it out, right? |
| Misun: Yeah. |
| Keith: Scout it out. |
| Misun: 예, 맞아요. Well, it’s not so much out of the plan, but people usually play some recreational games and drinking games, and etc. |
| Keith: A lot of Korean people are famous for their games, they like to play games. |
| Misun: I know. Do you like games? |
| Keith: Sure. I mean,with Korean people it’s always fun. |
| Misun: But drinking game is not fun. |
| Keith: It’s a little. 좀 힘들어요. |
| Misun: 네. 너무 힘들어요. |
| Keith: One thing that I was very curious about was, you know, it’s always these huge group of people that go together, but is it mandatory to go when there’s an MT? You know, some people might be busy, some people… they can’t go, or some people they just don’t enjoy drinking, right? |
| Misun: Yeah, it’s not mandatory, but people don’t want to be left out, you know? I don’t want to be left out. |
| Keith: I want to play with the popular kids. How about, those who don’t drink, how about people that don’t like to drink? |
| Misun: You know, also it’s not mandatory to drink if you don’t drink either, but, always but, you can still play along with the others. |
| Keith: Well, a really good tip that I can give the listeners is if a bunch of people are playing a game and you don’t want to drink, but you still want to have fun, you want to participate. |
| Misun: Yeah, hang out with friends, and you know... |
| Keith: What you can do, instead of drinking alcohol, you just drink water. |
| Misun: Oh, that’s true. |
| Keith: It depends on the people you’re with. Well, how about yourself? Do you personally enjoy these MTs? |
| Misun: Well, like taking a train, that part I really enjoy that, but drinking 소주, well… |
| Keith: It depends. |
| Misun: I never liked it before, but I do like it now. |
| Keith: Okay, you seem to really like it now. |
| Misun: Maybe. |
| Keith: You know one thing about 소주 is they give you really bad hangovers, right? |
| Misun: Yeah, that’s true. So don’t drink too much. If you drink one bottle of 소주, you will definitely get a hangover. |
| Keith: Yeah, I’ll have to agree with that. |
| Misun: Take care yourself, listeners. |
| Keith: Yeah, that’s right. You probably should take care of yourself. Although it’s a very difficult thing to do for most people to not drink so much, especially when if you are in Korea, right? |
| Misun: That’s true. |
| Keith: But if you been on an MT or if you been on an MT-like drinking experience, with some Korean friends, you know what? We’d love to hear from you. |
| Misun: Yeah. If you in Korea and if you’re gone on any MTs with your Korean friends, please share your experiences with us. |
| Keith: And not all MTs are the same, right? |
Outro |
| Misun: Yes. There are quieter ones and there are MTs with less alcohol too, so please share with your stories. |
| Keith: And you can do that at KoreanClass101.com. |
| Misun: Please, I’ll be waiting for the comments. Please. |
| Keith: All right. We will see everyone there. Bye. |
| Misun: Bye. |
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