KOREA FOUNDATION

Hello! Please greet the readers of the Monthly ASEAN Culture House.

Hello. I'm Nguyen Viet Anh, a 27-year-old from Viet Nam. I came to study in Korea to become a trader connecting Viet Nam and Korea. To achieve this dream, I’ve graduated from the Department of Global Business at Mokwon University and am currently in the master’s program.

I heard that with your friends, you produced multilingual Korean menus and distributed them to nearby restaurants!

Often, menus at Korean restaurants near our school only list the name of each food without any photos. When students first encountered new foods and didn’t know what they looked like or which ingredients they contained, they would stick to only ordering familiar dishes instead. We decided to create multilingual menus in hopes that more international students would experience a variety of Korean foods in Korean restaurants.

Was there any difficulty in creating the menus? It was most difficult to convey the unique Korean words.

For example, tteokbokki is a rice cake dish stir-fried with gochujang, but that’s hard to understand for students who don’t know what gochujang tastes like. I tried to make it as easy as I could, reflecting on my own experiences.

What was the reaction of the restaurant owners and your friends?

The first time they saw the menu we made, my international friends and the restaurant owners loved it so much. The owner was happy that a lot of international students had started coming in, and my friends were happy that it was easier to order food. I felt so proud and rewarded when I went to the restaurant with my friends and they ordered from the menu that I made.

Lastly, a word to the readers of the Monthly ASEAN Culture House and your friends, please.

I hope you work hard to study. Let's study hard and eat a lot of tasty Korean food. I hope you love Vietnamese food as well. I’d also like to express my sincere gratitude to the owners of restaurants near our school for always greeting me kindly. I look forward to continuing to have your delicious food.