“Humans eat to survive. So food is essential for people to survive.” Do you agree with this old adage? There’s a club named Tongue, adding meanings to the food. The club regards food not only as an essential staple in life, but also as culture by linking it to relationships between people. Why not eat more delightfully and more tastily with Tongue? The Sookmyung Times (SMT) met the club’s representative, Cho Seongrae (CHO) to talk more about the club’s purpose.
SMT Tongue is a club that seeks out tasty restaurants, which is a bit unique as a university club. How did Tongue started?
CHO Several TV programs introduce restaurants serving delicious food, which we call Matzip in Korea. At first, the club was established with the purpose of seeking out restaurants shown on TV programmes and tasting the cuisine firsthand, but now the club pursues various activities based on relationships made by eating and gathering many people. With these purposes in mind, Tongue recruited its first generation members in 2010. Since that time, it has grown to include its now 7th generation members who are exceptionally active.
SMT Can you explain more about Tongue and its activities?
CHO The Tongue is comprised of a chief, a second chief, a general affairs officer, and four teams; planning, promotion, economic cooperation, and design. Basically, the club gathers once a week for its weekly group get-together, where it seeks out Matzip content and programmes. Sometimes, members suggest a combination; that is, the club sometimes organizes an eating event at a sports event or at a book review to make the meeting more flavorful. Second, our biggest activity is the Visiting Restaurant with 100 People, which is held 1-2 times a year. Unlike other clubs, nonmembers can also participate. Once a total of 100 people have formed a team, they visit Matzip and enjoy not only food but also some game and mission. Thanks to the relationship made by these activities, Tongue is starting to become known for its various outdoor contest activities. For example, we joins SUAF every year, hosted the Private Party 2012 with the social commerce club We Make Price and were selected top participating team by Tom N Toms in the Introducing Our Club event. ‘Communication and Sympathy above making spec' is Tongue's characteristic. We do everything with a sincere attitude not just for a spec and keep searching for more various activities.
SMT There have been unethical practices like people abusing the name of a power blogger to entice a restaurant manager to give special treatment. Has this ever happened to your club?
CHO We have a homepage and a blog and our members are free to post introductions and reviews of restaurants as well as food information. Also, more than 300 people connect our blog each day. Because our web posting activities act as our department of public relations, some restaurants have asked us to post their restaurant supporting foods and services for free. Unfortunately, this happened before we realized or suspected they were abusing our club’s name. A netizen visited one of those restaurants posted on our blog and found some untruthfulness. After this happening, we pay more attention when posting a restaurant’s review. That is, we hold a commitee meeting and then visit the establishment when a restaurant contacts us. We also think abusing the name of a power blogger or club name is clearly an onslaught. Even though we are honest, some posts could be misleading. Thus, we apologize for any misreading and incorrectness in our blog.
