A Study on the Perception and the Knowledge of the Korean Traditional Food in the Elementary Schoolchildren of Incheon

The purpose of the study was to investigate the perception and the knowledge of the Korean traditional foods in elementary school students. For the investigation, 373 fifth-grade elementary school students in Incheon were surveyed by a questionnaire, and the data were analized by the SPSS 10.0 program. The result showed that 85% of the surveyed schoolchildren showed the interest in the Korean traditional foods. It also revealed that female students are more interested in the traditional food than male students and the children of the career woman are more interested than those of the housewives. As for the motive of their interest, 39.7% of the subjects answered 'through mass media'. Male students and the children of the housewives got the interest through their mother, and female students and the children of the career woman got the interest through their hobby of cooking food. Among the traditional foods, 76.4% of the children designated kimchi as the most proud traditional food. As for the reasons of reducing traditional food use, 39.9% of students responded because of 'not-tasty' and 28.7% of students replied because of 'not enough time to cook'. But 62.2% of the subjects thought the traditional foods should be more used in the future. As for the succession and development of the traditional foods, 33.8% of the subjects said it should be carried out by the family. The basic knowledge score of the traditional foods was 5.78 on a scale of 10, which showed relatively low level. The lower their basic knowledge, the less their interest in the traditional foods was. The samgyetang, ogokbap and bindaetteok were the most perceived traditional foods. The cheonggukjang, nabakgimchi and jindallaehwajeon were the foods they had seen, but the they didnot have heard or seen the others. Among the traditional foods, susugyeongdan, jindallaehwajeon and dasik were more perceived by the schoolchildren in the rural area than those in the urban area. The jindallaehwajeon and dasik were more perceived by female students than by male students. Therefore, in order to make elementary schoolchildren take the traditional foods with pride by increasing their perception and knowledge of them, the family should give them many opportunities to eat traditional foods. The school also should try to establish a cooperative relationship to the family of schoolchilderen and use more Korean traditional foods in the school's meal program. Furthermore, the society's concern and support are necessary and also the role of mass media, which have great influence on children, is important.