What do students think about sink bathrooms that Asian language students only have?

 

 

 The hallways of Michuhol Foreign Language High School are divided into two sides, dividing Asian and Western language students on each side. Since there is a notable difference in facilities between the Asian and Western language departments, students are going through various difficulties. The Asian language department has a separate room for brushing teeth. However, since there is sink bathrooms in the Western language department, Western language students often experience inconvenience because they must use small sinks in a limited space. To thoroughly research the real conditions, we had a survey asking students about the problems and improvement methods.

 

How do Asian Language students think?

 To begin with, we had a survey on two Japanese language students. For the first question, we asked them about the advantages of using sink bathrooms. A first-grade student answered that it is uncomfortable for many students to brush their teeth at once in front of a limited number of sink bathrooms. A second grade student also said that the biggest advantage is that sink bathrooms allow many students to brush their teeth at once. Secondly, we asked students’ opinions on the difference of facilities between Asian and Western language hallways. Two students both responded that it is either uncomfortable or unfair for Western language students to use limited areas. Furthermore, second grader added that considering the fact that Western language students have better accessibility to major language rooms and stairs heading to the school cafeteria, the school made a fair enough arrangement.

 

How do Western Language students think?

 Instead of sink bathrooms in Asian languages, Western language departments have water fountains. To find out what students think about this, we conducted interviews with students in the Western Language Department. A first-grade Western language student said that the Western language department's restrooms and sinks without sink bathrooms are often crowded after each meal period, which interferes with getting ready for class. In our interviews with second-grade Western students, we found that many students felt hygienically uncomfortable when brushing their teeth at the sinks because the space used to wash their tumblers and the space used to brush their teeth coincided. They often had to go to other floors to brush their teeth because of the lack of space, which was inefficient. A first-grade Western language student answered that the problem is that there are a lot of students who want to brush their teeth, which takes up a lot of time, and that they can't use the restroom if they need to use the sink in addition to brushing their teeth. One second-grade student replied that she often felt uncomfortable because the area where she rinsed items for recycling in front of her was the same area where she brushed her teeth. The expectation of being able to use their time more efficiently would improve their quality of life. Next, when asked about the need for sink bathrooms, all students acknowledged that it was difficult to place sink bathrooms due to structural issues and space limitations. Students agreed that it was essential to have sink bathrooms and that if it was not possible to have sink bathrooms, other measures should be taken. We concluded that having a toothbrush station would reduce the need to waste time, and it would also reduce the number of times students bump into each other in crowded restrooms. The most common answer was that they would be able to better utilize their time and space. Students who complained about the unpleasantness of brushing their teeth at the water fountains came up with a compromise: since it is difficult to build sink bathrooms shortly, it would be more hygienic to improve the drainage of the water fountains so that debris can drain better. It would be good to have rules for using the water fountains to address this unpleasantness. In these situations, it is important to avoid offending many people.

 

 This is what we found out that Western and Eastern students thought about the toothbrush room in the Oriental Languages Department. We found that many students were unhappy about the lack of sink bathrooms in the Western Language Department. However, since it is not feasible to build sink bathrooms soon, prioritizing the inconvenience of students who are uncomfortable with the lack of sink bathrooms would alleviate their discomfort. We don't know what the most satisfactory outcome for everyone will be, but it seems necessary to take measures to eliminate discomfort as much as possible in the current situation.

 

 

By Staff Reporter Tae Yeon Kim (1-3)

Yunseo Choi (2-4)