Food, Table Manners, and setting aside the chopsticks...

你们好!

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I just returned home from a Waiban-sponsored venture to Metro, a Sam's Club/CostCo.-esque supermarket that sells many of the foods and brands found in the American equivalent. As a PCV (who barely cooks), my purchases consisted of:

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-French Bread

-2 bottles of ketchup (great on eggs!)

-sugar-glazed donuts (a birthday party donation for tonight; 生日快乐 PCV Jake!)

-a package of sliced cheese. (if you are a Western foreigner in China, I know you are drooling after reading the "C" word)

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But after two hours of looking at food I desperately want but can't afford, I was reminded back to this week's lesson entitled "Hungry in America?: Foods of the world, Manners, and Etiquette." This is the first generation in China to grow up with a choice in how their taste buds should be titillated. Food is an amazing educational tool/subject when talking about culture, and judging from my students positive response to the lesson, especially the mini-lecture on table manners (I know, Mom, who am I to teach table manners!?), this is a lesson they will remember far into the future.

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I must say that I can't take full-credit for this lesson; Devon, my site mate last year, designed a presentation and supplemented it with a massive purchasing of plates (3 different sizes), cups, forks, knives, bowls, napkins, and doilies. I sat in on her talk and only tweaked it here and there to better accommodate my students. As you can see above, before we talk at all about how to eat, I let my students attempt and create their own table setting, then ask them to try their best and place the objects in their "correct" places.

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The most fascinating parts of this lesson:

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- Chinese students have no idea what fortune cookies are.

- For the most part, students know how to use forks and knives (with only a few small mistakes). I asked one class where they learned how to cut a piece of meat - their answer: "Movies!" Thank you, Hollywood!

- Eating noodles in China can be a quick processes, but when I taught them to use a spoon and twirling fork with their Italian pasta - "1-3 noodles at a time...Keep you posture!...twirl, twirl, twirl....not too much!...now gracefully place into mouth...." - they felt exhausted.

- Finally, I told them how in America I am required to "sign" my name on the check. I printed my name on the board, then under it, I sign it, which is a fast looping, barely readable chicken scratch. "What's that!?" they ask. "That's me!" I say.

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I conclude the lesson with the same advice/encouragement I end most of my lessons on world culture. "You might think this is funny. Maybe even some of you think this is useless. But I know many of you dream of seeing the world, or at least the world outside of China, and my dream is that you will use this lesson someday when you fulfill that dream. Your dream is also my dream! Hey! Everybody has to EAT!...and NEWSFLASH, more than 75% of restaurants in the Western world don't offer chopsticks! Don't get caught spittin'!" (referring to my instruction on the proper use of a napkin).

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Don't get caught spittin'!...

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I love and miss you all,

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Phil

蓝麦飞