Three semesters ago, the writing competition of Hongik University started alongside the public speaking competition as a way to encourage more people to write in English. Last semester, the writing competition was held on 10th November, 2016 in Room R420 from 6-8p.m. There were nine entrants in the beginning level competition and five in the intermediate level competition. The topic this semester for the competition was “Should fast food restaurants be allowed on campus?”. Below are the winning essays of the contest from last semester. After reading through them, consider participating in the contest next semester!

Beginning Level Winning Essay

Park Jiwon (wisdom713@naver.com)

Considering different kinds of students and professors on campus, I am strongly on the positive side of the issue that fast food restaurants should be allowed for the following reasons. First, fast food can be useful for international students or foreign professors to choose their meals. As a matter of fact, more and more students with different nationalities are coming to study academics.However, some of them have difficulties in choosing their lunch meals because most food that the campus cafeteria provides are accustomed to Korean’s taste. Kimbap, kimchi-rice, and Bibimbap are the examples. In contrast, fast food restaurants are found in most countries in the world, and lots of people enjoy food in there. It should be a good choice to allow fast food restaurants following the stream of the university being internationalized. Next, numerous menus in fast food restaurants can lessen the concern or conflict with friends or colleagues. As there are a lot options to choice, various hamburger set menus, pieces of chicken tenders, different kinds of coffee, and several kings of ice cream and shakes, as an example, are very attractive for people having different tastes. While, some people worry that food in fast food restaurants are nutritionally unhealthy containing lots of fats and foreign students from Middle East Asia countries can’t take advantage of it. However, people can enjoy food without excessive oil and meat called “well-being set”. Also, fast food restaurants can make “Halal set” for students believing in Muslim, as in their countries. Last, service of fast food restaurants are very convenient for busy students and the faculty. For instance, “delivery service”, which most fast food restaurants provide, is helpful for students doing science experiments in the laboratory. I saw lots of students staying in their classrooms and not having meals when they have excessive assignments. Moreover, as fast food restaurants run all the day, twenty-four hours, students on test periods can take their meal whenever they want, which gives efficiency on their time management. For above all the reasons, allowing fast food on campus must be advantageous.

Intermediate Level Winning Essay

Yeo Seulgi (yeoseulki@gmail.com)

I’m Loving it on Campus

When I was young, I was told so often that I would die of eating too much fast food and I have been a huge fan of fast food ever since I got to have a bite of burger. However, after many years, I’m still alive, being in shape. There are many good things of fast food but the only thing that annoys me is that I can’t find fast food restaurant restaurants on campus.

First of all, fast food is reasonably cheap. College students are not some people who always seek for well beinglife but people who always look for some good yet cheap food so they can save money. Occasionally they could go to a restaurant that offers nice cheap foods. As a result, with that money they save, they could spend on something that really values to them.

Secondly, college students are always running out of time. They have a part time job to pay student’s loan, they have a variety of team project, presentations and homework and they have a social life, too. Even though they are swamped, they’ve got to eat something, That’s why we need “fast” food here on campus. As you can see it from the name, you can get your food almost immediately once you order. A fast food restaurant is a life saver for students who don’t have time to go to a cafeteria and have a good meal time. As for me, since I took a lot of courses last semester, I had no choice but to skip meals in order to get to class on time, Fast food restaurant can prevent students from skipping meals or rushing to the next class. By saving time for students, they can get to eat something which is a fair portion and make it on time

Lastly, Fast food is not the same as garbage food. We can all agree with the fact that fast food is not healthy at some point. However, as world has changed so fast, so has fast food industry. People working within the industry know how smart consumers have changed, how sensitive they have become and how important it is to make a policy to satisfy savvy consumers. Fast food is now different from what you expected a couple of years ago. While maintaining their strength which is cheap and affordable food, they took it to the next level. When you enter a fast food restaurant, you can see that they offer a lot of various types of food. For example, McDonald’s, they have a variety of menus from really reasonable cheap burgers to a well being, homemade type of burgers that cost a little bit more that the others. Or even you can create your own burger by choosing ingredients that you care instead of ordering a product. This is how different they are. They have everything for various people with different purposes. As a result, they made it possible to satisfy their customers and make their business successful in spite of this well-being food.

With all these benefits, it’s hard to believe that we cannot find any fast food restaurants on campus. If principals of colleges are worried about student’s health and if that’s a reason why they keep fast food restaurants away from the students, I don’t think they have a right to regulate our diet. We pay tuition fee for the quality of courses, facilities and all the services throughout campus. Why do we lack of a choice that brings a huge amount of convenience into our life? Fast food restaurants should be allowed on campus for students.

Three semesters ago, the writing competition of Hongik University started alongside the public speaking competition as a way to encourage more people to write in English. Last semester, the writing competition was held on 10th November, 2016 in Room R420 from 6-8p.m. There were nine entrants in the beginning level competition and five in the intermediate level competition. The topic this semester for the competition was “Should fast food restaurants be allowed on campus?”. Below are the winning essays of the contest from lastsemester. After reading through them, consider participating in the contest next semester!

You Hahyeun  hahyeunyou@gmail.com

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