Montly TOEFL essay #1: It's all connected with food!

Describe a custom from your country that you would like people from other countries to adopt. Explain your choice, using specific reasons and examples.

Today, all around the world, there are many customs that exist. All customs have different characteristics that are developed from different ethnic backgrounds. Since, every country has their own custom whether that custom is considered good or bad, it is important to share good customs that can be enormously beneficial to others. For this reason, I want to introduce a good customs that Korea have. My country, South Korea, have many customs. Such as customs that developed by Koreans, and also customs that came across the East sea from China, such as, Confucianism. Between these customs there are good ones that other countries should definitely adopt. For instance, respecting parents, bowing to elder people. Because of this our country needs to learn other good customs from different countries, and if I could have a chance to inform good customs of my nation, I would definitely introduce Korean food custom.

When we think about Korean food custom we usually think about environment-friendly food. These environmental food includes eating vegetables, herbs, and most importantly fermented food. Korea had been developing many fermented food like kimchi, and doenjang which are very helpful to our health. Our food custom, eating fermented food for everyday, has lead Koreans to have more environment-friendly and healthier eating habit. However, in 21 century, many people love to eat instant food that are considered unhealthy, and disease provoking food. Fermented food might not be tasty to people from other countries but as the importance of these food is significantly increasing, it is necessary. Thus, it is important to us to have environment-friendly food and this is the reason that I want other countries to adopt this food custom.

The next food custom that I want to talk about is Korean table manners. Since, Korea puts significant importance on respecting others, from the past Koreans have been developing its own table manners. Specifically, one example of table manner is 'young people should not eat before elder person, and they should not leave the seats before the adults finish their meal'. They consider this as disrespectful thing. This is also connected with Confucianism which came from China, increasing the importance of respecting others. When I was young, my parents always taught me it is disrespectful thing to take a spoon and eat before my parents eat. I still follow this when I get to eat meal with my parents. Also, this kind of table manner should be adopted in other countries to show respect to others and by setting these table manners in different countries, they will know how to react when they are eating with others. I think Korea custom has huge positive aspect on respecting others.

Many countries share different customs from various backgrounds, and Korea has its own custom on food. To sum up, the custom that I'd like other countries to adopt is Korea's food custom. This food custom can be divided into two categories, eating environment-friendly food, and our table manners.