[Other] Alumna Ohsoon Yun, Ethiopian Coffee Expert
- Date2022.01.04
- 3883
Today, the Ewha DNA interviewed alumna Ohsoon Yun (Philosophy, graduating class of 1998), an expert in the coffee of Ethiopia, the home of coffee, who has moved around three continents for about twenty years with extraordinary enthusiasm for coffee.
Q. Nice to meet you. Please briefly introduce yourself.
Hello, I am Ohsoon Yun, a graduate from the Department of Philosophy at the College of Liberal Arts, Ewha Womans University, and now the CEO of Beletu Co. Ltd., an Ethiopian coffee platform.
Beletu is an Ethiopian coffee platform that introduces and sells Ethiopian coffee. At first, I opened a Facebook page called “Ethiopian Coffee Club” to share information about Ethiopian coffee in various languages, and many people liked it and took great interest. I still actively engage in social media to reach out to more people with information about Ethiopian coffee. Moreover, I share and pass on information regarding coffee projects that are linked to agencies for international development cooperation. I also plan to create Ethiopia-related designs and not only sell them in Korea but also export them abroad.
Q. I wonder what made you study Ethiopian coffee to begin with.
I had an unexpected opportunity to visit Ethiopia, where I became interested in regional development through coffee, so I studied for a master’s degree in sociology in Japan and for a doctorate in geography in the U.K. on the subject of “Ethiopian coffee tourism.” I then naturally became a coffee expert while visiting many locations in Ethiopia for fieldwork, and I have introduced Ethiopian coffee at various coffee-related events as an Ethiopian coffee supply chain expert. With the aim of not only introducing Ethiopian coffee but also making it more widely known, I founded my own coffee business. And now I serve as CEO of Beletu, an Ethiopian coffee platform.'
Q. You said that you’re constantly taking on new challenges. What is your driving force behind that?
I think what drives me to move is curiosity and thrill. When I was an undergraduate student, I read a lot of books while working at the University Library. Whenever I discovered a book I liked, I sent an e-mail to the author and visited them in person to have conversations with them. When I faced a problem or a question, I tried to solve them head on. I enjoyed the problem-solving process itself, looking at the problem from various angles with different approaches, then moving on to the next step.
Q. What is your future goal or direction in life?
I want to try a wide range of new things to find out how far I can go with Ethiopian coffee. I would like to expand my horizons to a point where others will marvel that these things are even possible.
I will walk my own path at my own pace, without setting my standard based on those of other people. I started my career later than others in my 20s, but I never thought of myself as lagging behind and simply kept running at my own pace, which I think has helped me to start a new coffee business like I did. In the future, I’d like to continue to focus on myself and move forward.
Q. What advice would you like to give to Ewha students who work hard to make their dreams come true?
I hope you try many different things, whether you succeed or fail. I think it is really important to find your own pace, and you need to experience both success and failure in order to do so. To this end, I hope you are not disappointed even if you do fail. I also think that we can always be proud of being a member of Ewha throughout our lives. It’s great that there are so many Ewha alumnae who will gladly lend their help if you ask for it, since we all share a connection that exists everywhere, even outside the campus. If there are younger Ewha members who are also interested in my field, I would like to help them as much as I can.