This study examines the awareness of traditional Korean food culture among immigrant housewives in multicultural families, with the aim of introducing educational plans suitably designed for them. Our survey shows that Korean traditional holidays most well-known to the immigrant housewives are New Year's Day and Chusuk. Sambok and Chusuk are at the top in terms of preference. Samgyetang, Ddukguk, and Ogokbab are among the best known festive food to immigrant housewives for holidays such as New Year's Day, Jeongwol Daeboreum, Sambok, Chusuk, and Dongji; Samgyetang is the most preferred food, followed by Ddukguk and Patjuk. In addition, a vast majority of immigrant housewives who have ever attended Korean traditional cuisine education programs found the need for such an experience, with the score of 4.16 out of 5. In addition, the survey shows the order in which the immigrant housewives want to learn: the recipe of Korean food (53.5%), followed by table setting and manners (16.5%) and then nutrition (15%). The recipe of interest for most respondents is the one concerning daily food (69.5%). And more than half of the respondents prefer cooking practice as a desirable educational method. The difficulties that they have when attending such an educational course are usually inability to understand the language, difficulty in identifying the ingredients (seasonal), and lack of cultural understanding. The most preferred educational method is direct lecture (71.5%), followed by written materials such as books and newspaper (10.5%) and the Internet (9.5%). Finally, strategies for promoting traditional food culture are suggested as following: developing educational resources (31.5%), making various educational programs more available (25%), narrowing the cultural gap (22%), and improving the educational environment (21.5%). Therefore, this study proposes that there is a need to develop and diffuse Korean traditional food culture first, and then provide many immigrant housewives with a variety of educational programs. It is expected that these efforts will solve the problems caused by cultural differences in the early stage of international marriages and eventually contribute to the harmony in multicultural families.

Changes in social, economical, and cultural environments affect the meal practices of children. The transmission of traditional Korean food culture is very important because it presents not only a well-balanced diet but also contributes to shaping identity. The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary school students' present meal practices and views, as well as demands on traditional food culture education to reflect future educational plans. Half of the students ate breakfast everyday and 72% ate a traditional Korean style breakfast. About 38% of the students participated 2-4 times per week in meal preparation and 34% participated in clean-up after the meal once a day. Although 6th graders had greater skills in basic cooking, they tended to be more passive upon applying their skills in daily meal practice. For traditional food culture education, 89% of the experienced and 86.2% of the inexperienced groups agreed on the necessity of traditional food culture education. Students attained traditional food culture knowledge through Silgwa, practical coursework within the curriculum, and by teachers leading classes. They were also educated by parents, mass media, and books outside of school. The preferred methods of class teaching were lecture and experiential learning. The preferred subjects to learn were 'cooking classes based on taste development', 'learning food ingredients through vegetable growing', 'traditional Korean food manners', and 'traditional Korean food culture and seasonal foods' as well as nutritional education. Fifth graders had more positive attitudes towards meal practices and traditional food culture education. Traditional Korean food culture and nutrition education should be integrated and developed into regular subject curricula to improve children's meal practice and inheritance of traditional food culture.

This thesis, which involves honest life stories of members of the ìtraditionalî Korean generation that lived through the turbulent times of the first half of the twentieth century, assesses the meaning and import of Korean cuisine during an individual Korean’s lifetime, as well as the relevant properties of the culinary culture of the traditional generation and how those properties continue to influence the present generation of Koreans. Thus, traditional Korean culinary culture was subdivided into the following four aspects, each of which were exemplified by representative examples. The first of these is slow-food dietary life, which is exemplified by fermented foods. The development of side dishes (panchan) based on fermentation - kimchi, different types of soy and bean paste, salted seafoods, dishes of dried radish or cucumber slices seasoned with soy sauce, and so on - made the quantitative and qualitative supplementation of food possible for traditional Koreans. The second of these aspects, referred to as friendly dietary life, is exemplified by self-sufficiently produced foods. The system of many species and small production suitable with the season made it possible to produce food from sustainable ecological systems and to maintain locally grown food-cultures, each of which was distinguished from others by a local specialty product. The third aspect of the traditional Korean culinary culture involves the same use of medicinal roots and plant materials for foodstuff, and this is exemplified by the use of foods to cure and prevent diseases. The notion, for example, that ‘boiled rice is an invigorant’ is characteristic of the notion that diet can function in a preventative medical context, and other similar Korean notions illustrate the importance, also, of the curative properties of food. The fourth and final aspect of traditional Korean culinary culture identified herein is creative dietary life, which can be viewed essentially as a Korean adaptation to the turbulence of life during the early 20th century in Korea. This trend is exemplified by many Korean foods that were created in response to foreign influences, such as onions, cabbages, curry, etc. which found their place in overall Korean culture through the age of Japanese settlement, as well as the Korean war.

The purpose of this study was to identify and compare the dimensions and patterns of the perception of traditional food for Koreans living in Yanbian, Mongolia and Uzbekistan. Items representing the perception of traditional food were combined into a dimension and a pattern based on underlying perception of the Koreans living in the area. Any difference in the perception of the Koreans living in these areas likely reflects their different dimensions and patterns. Thus, it is important to determine if Koreans living in Yanbian, Mongolia and Uzbekistan should be treated as a homogeneous group when defining their perceptional structure of traditional food. Factor and cluster analysis of the data generated in this study revealed two different dimensions and patterns for each group of Koreans living in Yanbian, Mongolia and Uzbekistan. However, the structure of the dimensions and patterns of the perception of traditional food differed, indicating that Koreans within and between the countries are not a homogeneous group. Similarities and differences in perceptional dimensions and patterns among Yanbian, Mongolian and Uzbekistan-Koreans are also discussed. Moreover, future implications for food and nutrition specialists, especially for those who have an interest in Korean traditional food in Asia and those who have an interest in globalization of Korean traditional food are provided.

The object of this study is to evaluate the Korean traditional food culture education program which was developed in the prior study. In order to evaluate the effect of the program on the students’ knowledge of traditional food culture and their food habit, the program was practiced for 82 students in 4 elementary schools located in Seoul and Kyungki province during 16 weeks from Mar 1, 2005 to July 23, 2005. The pretest and the post-test were performed using an evaluation tool which is composed of evaluation sections for the perception and knowledge of the Korean traditional food culture, Korean children’s food habit and food preference for the Korean traditional food and fast food. The validity of evaluation was proved through the control group in the pretest and the post-test. Descriptive analysis and paired t-test were performed using SPSS/WIN 12.0 Statistic Package in order to compare the results of the pretest with those of the post-test after the education. The perception of the students who took the class for the Korean traditional food was slightly improved (p<0.05) and their knowledge was also increased (p<0.001) after the education while no difference was found in the control group. Moreover, the subjects’ food habit (p<0.001) and their preference of the Korean traditional food (p<.05) were increased respectively but their preference of the Western fast food was decreased(p<.01). These results indicate that the education program evaluated in this study has the effect of altering the subjects’ food habit or food preference as well as of introducing the knowledge of the Korean traditional food culture.

The purpose of this study was to identify the dimensions and patterns of the perception of Korean traditional food and to find the determinants of the patterns between Korean and Yanbian housewives, taking food culture into account. Data were factor and cluster analyzed, and the results revealed two and three different dimensions and patterns for Yanbian and Korean housewives respectively. Descriptive statistics showed that perceptional patterns are likely to vary depending on cultural background of Korean traditional food. Similarities and differences in perceptional patterns between Yanbian and Korean housewives are discussed, and future implications for food as well as nutrition specialists and food marketers are provided.