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| ▲ Students eating alone at the KU cafeteria. Photographed by Kim Seung Hyun. | ||
Honbap is a newly coined Korean term that means eating alone. Until just recently, people who ate alone were often looked down on as someone lacking social skills. Some people even confessed that they ate alone inside a toilet partition to prevent such judgment. However, things have changed—fewer people are ashamed of eating alone, and the number of restaurants catering to one person has increased tremendously. A restaurant located near Korea University (KU) that sells bossam (boiled pork) dishes for one person is a perfect example of this. With this in mind, let’s find out whether 662 KU students eat alone and their thoughts on this matter!
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3. Where do you normally eat alone? (Multiple responses were allowed)
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4. Why do you eat alone? (Multiple responses were allowed)
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5. Have you experienced any difficulties when eating alone?
Interestingly, the most frequent response was that students worried about how they looked to others. Even though it was them who chose to eat alone, students were still a little concerned that they might be seen as a loner by others. They especially hoped not to come across someone they knew.
6. Why don’t you eat alone? (Multiple responses were allowed)
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7. What comes to your mind when you see people eating alone?
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8. What should be done to improve the dining environment for lone diners?
Many students hoped that restaurants had more tables designed for lone diners since they felt uncomfortable occupying tables that can accommodate multiple diners. Others said that people should change their negative perceptions about eating alone. They supported their claim by pointing out the emergence of the term honbap, which indicates that eating alone is an unusual behavior.
Park Min Jeong
seoul96@korea.ac.kr