Dating on Sunday

Recently, a new colorful banner showed up in the student cafeteria of the Seoul Campus. HUFSPOON, a mobile application that translates the HUFS cafeteria menu items into various languages, became available for international students’ convenience. In April, The Argus wrote an article about the hardships that HUFS international students go through on campus. One of them was the struggle to understand the student cafeteria menu since it is only written in Korean. Finally, the problem has been resolved through HUFSans’ spontaneous endeavor. The Argus met the team “Monday Spoon” and listened to their special stories.

The Argus: Nice to meet you. Please introduce the team “Monday Spoon.”
Kim So-young (Kim): Hello, we are “Monday Spoon,” the developers of HUFSPOON. We are composed of four HUFSans - Kim So-young (Dept. of Turkish and Azerbaijani ‘12), Juhn Jin-cheol (Dept. of Public Administration ‘10), Lee Sang-rok (Dept. of German ‘12) and Lee Seung-joon (Chinese Linguistics ‘14). We wanted to name our team using the word “spoon,” because our first project is called HUFSPOON. Since we meet every Monday, we decided to name ourselves “Monday Spoon.”

The Argus: Would you introduce your application HUFSPOON?
Juhn Jin-cheol (Juhn):
HUFSPOON translates and shows the menu items of all three cafeterias on the Seoul Campus - the Humanities Building, Faculty Office Building II and the Sky Lounge - in various languages for HUFS international students. Seven languages, including Korean, English, Chinese, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, are available at present. In addition, it provides information about restaurants and cafes around Imun-dong and their menus.

The Argus: What led you to come up with HUFSPOON?
Juhn: We first met each other as team members in a programming club. As we studied coding together, we planned to make a project in which we could apply what we have learned. Since our team members are all HUFSans, we wanted to do a project that could be of help to HUFS.
Lee Sang-rok (Lee): We first came up with the idea when we saw a menu called “Saloman(boneless chicken)” at the fried chicken restaurant in front of HUFS. Normally foreigners would not understand its meaning unless they are good at Korean like native speakers. While waiting for food, we discussed the topic “How could foreigners understand that menu? How do they go to restaurants around HUFS? Do they have any problems eating at the student cafeteria?” In the end, we came up with the idea of HUFSPOON.
Kim: It is known that HUFS is the university with the highest number of international students in Korea. We thought HUFS would definitely have an English version of the student cafeteria menu, but there was none. I heard that even neighboring universities like Kyung Hee University and Hanyang University provide menus in English. Unlike HUFS’ renown as the “No. 1 Globalized University in Korea,” the absence of translation services was very strange to us. We felt HUFSPOON was a must for international students.

The Argus: Would you explain the process of developing the application?
Lee: I was mostly in charge of developing the mobile application and website. I already had the technical skills to develop an application because I have been studying programming since high school. However, when making it, not only coding skills but also the ability to design things considering usability are required. I did not have any experience with that, so I had to absorb a lot of new knowledge. Resources related to mobile design are all in English, so it was very difficult to read and study programming words in English. Also I struggled for a long time thinking about which part to emphasize and which color to use to be effective. Making an application professionally was extremely hard, but I learned lots of new things, and it was  fun.
Kim: It was difficult to find various translators. At first, we had two languages translated as Jin-cheol worked on translating words into English and Seung-joon asked his Chinese acquaintance for Chinese translations. Just in time, we had an opportunity to introduce HUFSPOON at the exchange students’ orientation. Then, we asked if anyone was interested in translation, and thankfully many students contacted us to help. As those students could not understand Korean, they translated the English translation into their languages. However, there were many unfamiliar foods that translators had no idea about how to translate. Fortunately, a German translator had a good understanding of Korean food, so that student took a central role, and the translators gathered on weekends and translated together. We want to say a big thanks to our translator crew.

The Argus: What has the response to HUFSPOON been like?
Juhn: HUFSPOON is currently recording 153 downloads and approximately 700 page views daily. Our analysis shows us that the revisiting rate for the website is very high, so we think that there is a fixed number of people who are constantly using our service. Also, it is quite popular among international students and staff. Occasionally, I see some international students using our application in front of the student cafeteria ticket machine. Moreover, the school cooks have told us that complaints from international students have decreased compared to the past. They got complaints every year that the menu needs to be translated into English, but now the problem is resolved so the cooks really appreciate us.

The Argus: What are some aspects of HUFSPOON that leave something to be desired?
Juhn: We wanted to add Asian languages such as Japanese since the number of exchange students from Asia is very high. However, we could not make any contacts amongst people who would translate those languages. More unfortunate thing is that the application does not provide the service to the Global Campus. Making a service itself is not technically difficult, but we lack the manpower to cover it. Since four of us do all the work from application development to promotion, just working on the Seoul Campus is hard enough.
Kim: I think international students use iOS devices more than Android, so we have tried to broaden the service to iOS. However, this is not a problem that can be settled unless we scout or hire an expert by spending money. It is unfortunate that we cannot make it by ourselves.

The Argus: Have you faced any hardships while running HUFSPOON?
Juhn: We are doubtful if we can maintain HUFSPOON after this semester is over. I am seeking a job right now, Seung-joon has already gone to serve in the military, Sang-rok will be an exchange student next semester, and So-young is preparing for graduation. I think promotion is the biggest problem. The service will keep working if the server is on, but if its promotion ends, then the users would decrease and eventually the application will disappear.
As HUFSPOON is a service that is helpful to HUFS, we need a lot of help from the school for the service to last. We hope that the school will give us supports for the maintenance of the application and have further discussion on this issue soon.
Lee: A lack of manpower is the biggest problem for an app developer. It is very strenuous to manage the service with three people and study at the same time. We could complete translation work with little manpower because the amount of material that requires translation is fixed, as the student cafeteria repeats the same menu periodically. We thought of so many good plans and events; however, it is so unfortunate that we cannot fulfill those due to the small size of our group.

The Argus: What other plans do you have for HUFSPOON?
Juhn: Rather than being complacent and continuing to provide services in six foreign languages only, we are still working to broaden language choices. Moreover, I hope not only international students, but also Korean students will consider using our service. I heard that the cooks have a lot of concerns since the menu feedback channel between the cafeteria and students does not exist anymore after the student cafeteria bulletin board at ‘HUFS Life,’ a HUFS online community, disappeared a few years ago. They told us that they have been eager to develop new menu items based on student feedback. However, they have to maintain the same menu since they do not know what students like and what to improve. I want HUFSPOON to be the medium between students and the cafeteria to help it improve.

 

The Argus met with “Monday Spoon” who has resolved the decades-old language issue that existed between the school and international students. Taking a step further, they are endeavoring to become a communication channel between HUFSans and the student cafeteria. Based on the effort of Monday Spoon, The Argus hopes to see the day when every HUFSan interacts in harmony without any barriers on campus.


Associate Editor of Campus Section

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