Long stay professionals and self-reliant leisure sociability in East Asia

ABSTRACT Using qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews this paper explores how serious leisure homebrewing helped 18 long-stay non-native professionals in South Korea nurture leisure sociability among fellow brewers and Korean family, co-workers, and the broader community. Findings point out they made friendships by involving interested social contacts in brewing techniques and sharing beers at home, and by volunteering for brewing classes, bottle exchanges, tasting events, and charity support. Through these activities they enjoyed the leisure sociability themes of shop talk, practical information, instruction, encouragement, promoting products, event analysis, and talking about their social circles and local social world. Also, they benefited from the serious leisure personal and social rewards of self-expression, self-image, group attraction, group accomplishment, and contributing to group maintenance. It emerged they did not rely on any third-party assistance and were self-reliant when following their hobby. This included initiating their reaching out to others for help, advice, or holding convivial occasions, and leveraging of hobby processes and products by giving classes, and donating bottled beers for community events. Future research can examine the viability of self-reliant leisure sociability when establishing successful friendships arising from amateur, hobby, and volunteer activities in other cross-cultural contexts and broader settings.