Popular South Korean Drinking Games

One aspect of South Korean culture becomes very apparent after a few days in the country: the drinking culture is pretty developed. Alcohol made in South Korea is cheaply available in most convenient stores, and drinking establishments are open late at night/until early morning. South Koreans use alcohol to socialize and have developed many drinking games to do so. These games are especially popular among college students and in the army.

All the South Korean drinking games below play clockwise or counter-clockwise; just agree with other players before starting.

안녕클레오파트라 – Annyeong Cleopatra (Hello Cleopatra)

This simpler game consists of taking turns repeating the same song with a higher pitch than the previous player. The song is as follows:

KPOP group Wanna One demonstrate the game 안녕클레오파트라 (Hello Cleopatra) in the video below.

삼육구 게임 – Sam-nyuk-gu Game (3-6-9 Game)

In this game, players take turns counting numbers, starting with 1; the catch is every time a player lands on a number that contains a 3, 6, or 9, the player must clap and must not say the number. The number of claps is based on the number of 3, 6, 9; for example, for 29 or 30 the player has to clap only once, but for 33 the player has to clap twice! The first player who messes up loses.

While this game sounds simple, it can get confusing really fast:

• some players clap on multiples of 3 instead of numbers containing 3, 6, 9,
• a lot of players forget that they cannot say anything between 29 and 39 (all these numbers contain a 3 or a 9!)
• similarly, some players lose track of the current count between 29 and 39 and thus clap instead of saying 40.

A simple song is sung before the game:

Watch the video for an example of 삼육구게임 (3-6-9 Game) explained by KPOP girl group APRIL.

딸기게임 – Ddalgi Game (Strawberry Game)

After singing the intro song, everybody claps and move their hands in a specific pattern; at the same time, each player successively has to say 딸기 (ddalgi) a specific number of times based on the previous players' turns.

The pattern for clapping and moving hands that everybody has to follow at all times:

1. Clap both hands on the table.
2. Clap hands together.
3. Stick your right thumb and bend your right arm to the right of your head.
4. Stick your left thumb and bend your left arm to the left of your head.

Everybody has to repeat a -> b -> c -> d -> a -> b -> c -> d etc. as long as nobody loses. Because the game is rather complex to explain, an example is provided below.

Example of a round of 딸기게임 (Ddalgi Game)

The example below is for three players, but this game can be played regardless of the number of players. Each round starts with a song:

Intro Song for 딸기게임 (Ddalgi Game)

Everybody then starts clapping in the game's pattern:

Note: there are variant; of this game with 8 steps instead of 4. The first video below shows the standard 4-step version of the game; the second video demonstrates some of the 8-step variants.

버니게임 – Bunny Game

This game needs at least five players to be enjoyable. Like most games, each round starts with a song:

Intro song for 버니게임 (Bunny Game)

After everybody sings the intro song, the first player says "Bunny Bunny" while touching their thumbs with their other fingers in front of their mouth twice, and then says "Bunny Bunny" again while doing the same gesture and pointing to another player.

The receiving player needs to then say "Bunny Bunny" four times, the first two times doing the hand gesture twice while pointing toward their mouth, the last two times while pointing toward another player.

While the receiving player says "Bunny Bunny" the first two times, the two players sitting on both sides of the receiving players need to move their arms up and down while saying "당근 당근" (Dangeun Dangeun - Carrot Carrot).

The game continues until one player (either the receiving player or the players on both sides) messes up.

Watch the video below for an illustrated example of the game.

Song to Sing When a Player Loses

When a player loses, the other players usually sing a song before the losing player drinks a shot of soju.

One of the most common songs goes as follows:

You can listen to this song in the video below.

See also

• Korean food that pairs well with alcohol
• Norebang (Korean karaoke) to continue the night after drinking