The numbers for the internationalization of POSTECH-whatever they may be, from the number of classes in English to the number of international faculty-have been increasing since former President Park’s “Vision 2020” was inaugurated. The definition of internationalization can vary to many different people, but it surely will include “people from many different cultures.” POSTECH, with more than 71 sister-universities in 19 countries and with all exchanging scholars, students, and researchers, surely is becoming one of the internationalized schools in Korea.
There are still many things to do, not only for the “numbers” but for something more than just that. Eating- an essential act of surviving and socializing can be considered as one of the most urgent parts that needs more internationalization.
About 10% of the world’s population is vegetarians, and among the 90% of non-vegetarians, many don’t eat specific ingredients due to religious or biological reasons. But in POSTECH cafeterias, we have little chance to eat what we want, or at least to know what we are eating is made of. There might be some difficulties in writing everything down in English, so one way to simplify that would be categorize the ingredients into several numbers, such as 1-beef, 2-pork, 3-fish, and so on, and then just write down only the number next to the dish so that everyone can easily write and understand what they are making and eating.
For many different reasons, a large portion of international students cook for themselves in their dormitories. There is one kitchen in Dorm 16, DICE, and one in Dorm 19. Considering the number of international people in POSTECH, the numbers of kitchens are just too small. For the whole of DICE - an international dormitory with about 100 international students - there is only one kitchen with four hot plates and one sink. “International POSTECH” needs more than this. One small kitchen for so many people causes many problems, and since it is part of a dormitory, some people are having difficulties sleeping because of the smell of cooking. One simple but expensive way would be building one small kitchen building in between dorm buildings, and one cheaper way would be buying more hot plates and an air circulation system for the DICE kitchen.
The Korean culture of dinner meetings, “Hoesik (회식),” seems to make it necessary to eat meat (mostly pork belly), drink soju, and go to a “Noraebang”. But not everyone enjoys meat and not everyone drinks. Since Korean society has been homogeneous for a long time, it is hard to imagine someone unlike others. It will be difficult not to do any Hoesiks but at least people should not be forced to eat what they do not eat or drink what they do not drink. Unfortunately, there are a number of people already experiencing this, here in POSTECH, by some people assuming others will enjoy the same food that they are enjoying, but this is not always true.
All Postechians must remember that we are all different. When we talk about dinner, some people think of hot, steamed rice when some people think of chapati or bread. I am not trying to say Koreans should eat something, other than Korean cuisine. I just want all the POSTECH people respect others’ preferences, religions, and choices in their dishes.
Jaesuk Dustin Moon / Graduate Student of Chem. Eng
