Abstract
The purpose of this study was to analyze adaptation for Korean foods and satisfaction for university foodservice by nationality and residence period of Chinese and Japanese university students in Daejeon, Republic of Korea. Among 330 questionnaires distributed to Chinese and Japanese students, 294 complete questionnaires (89.1%) were analyzed. The questionnaire included two 5-point scales for measuring levels adaptation of for Korean food and satisfaction with university foodservice, respectively. Japanese students' level of adaptation for Korean food (3.16) was significantly higher than that of Chinese students (2.96). As the length of residence in Korea increased, the frequency of using university lunch service per week significantly decreased. The main factor when selecting a menu item was food taste (39.8%, 22.8%) in both Chinese and Japanese students, whereas the next main factor was preference (16.4%) in Chinese students and nutrition (18.7%) in Japanese students. The preferred cooking methods for meat were stir-frying (31.6%) and roasting (25.9%). For fish, Chinese students preferred braising (32.7%), whereas Japanese students preferred roasting (26.8%). Both Chinese and Japanese students preferred sukchae (45.6%, 43.1%) for vegetables. Factor analysis grouped 17 items measuring university foodservice into four factors, 'sanitation & employee service', 'physical environment', 'food' and 'customized menu & information' and the mean scores were 3.56, 3.30, 3.20 and 3.00, respectively. Chinese students were significantly more satisfied than Japanese students with the 'physical environment', 'sanitation & employee service' and 'customized menu & information'. These results suggest that efforts such as developing a greater variety of menu items with mild tastes and somewhat less flavor, applying preferred cooking methods, offering special menus for foreign students, providing nutrition information on menus, and offering a description of menu items in the foreign languages could improve Chinese and Japanese students' levels of satisfaction with university foodservice.