INTERNATIONAL POTLUCK PREP

Once I challenged a very high-level ESOL class for
future janitorial supervisors: "Who has the best
national cuisine?"  It was great!  On their own, on
the occasion of the final class each week,
the class members arranged to have a volunteer from
each nationality bring something they had cooked at
home and explain it in English.  They worked out a
schedule: first the Mexicans, then the Somalis, then
the Salvadorans, then the Ethiopians, then the
Vietnamese.     

But more often I see a reluctance to try one another's
national cuisines.  

A legitimate concern is dietary restrictions.  I would
really reinforce the teaching of food and ingredient
words in English before the potluck.  I would make
part of the assignment the labelling of each dish and
its ingredients on a folded cardstock table tent in
front of each dish. 

Special care should be taken to label beef (for Hindus
and vegetarians)and other meat products.  Pork
products and alcohol-deriviatives are of interest to
Muslims, so that they can avoid them.  

Once a class of Somali Muslims brought up the issue of
pork-based gelatin versus kosher gelatin in yogurt. 
"Root Beer" provided a teachable moment, because it
contains no alcohol, yet has the red flag word "beer".


Teaching how to read ingredient labels and look for
kosher symbols (U in a circle, kof-K, star-K, parve,
etc.) can make for an interesting lesson before your
potluck.  Kosher symbols on yogurt and M&Ms were a
convenient way for Muslim students to know if foods
were religiously allowed, or halal.  About the only
common kosher product which is off-limits to
moderately-observant Muslims is kosher wine.  There
are also Muslim halal symbols on some products.  

Healthy versus unhealthy ingredients and chemicals can
be discussed at this time.  Take care that after a
discussion of the evils fat and MSG, zealous students
do not insult other students who make potluck dishes
containing these ingredients.

Whenever I take a class to Job Fairs, we do a
scavenger hunt activity.  Without the direction
provided by the scavenger hunt, the Job Fair is too
free-form and the students stick to their comfort
zones and don't talk to the roomful of companies.  We
practice a formula of greetings, questions to ask, and
thank-you phrases.  Each student has to talk to four
different booths and write down the answers they hear
on a survey sheet.  The survey is somewhat short.  The
goal of talking to many different people is more
important than answering a long list of survey
questions.

I like that you had in mind to structure your potluck
with games and activities from the outset.
The scavenger hunt and survey activity can help
assuage students who like a very rigid classroom
environment and consider parties frivolous.  Some of
the elderly Somali men who had studied grammar avidly
until class ended the night before were annoyed with
the idea of a party and slipped away two minutes after
it began.  Holding a survey sheet and a pencil in one
hand will make them more happy to hold a plate or cup
in the other hand.

You could make a similar scavenger hunt out of your
potluck.  The questions to be asked could be about
ingredients (there will be some overlap with the
folded paper signs, however), colors of the food, the
name of the dish, the maker of the dish, "How did you
learn to make this?", taste of the food - "spicy",
"sweet", "salty", etc.  Polite compliments and
thank-you phrases for the preparer of each dish can be
built into the survey and your pre-activity practice.

Ego is important.  A lot of students' feelings are
bound up in the food they prepare. Some of the
lower-level students in English ability will want to
communicate with the teachers, volunteers and other
students through a medium they feel confident in-
home-made food.  The confidence and rapport they gain
with you and others when you show your appreciation of
this food will make it easier for them to learn
English.

Eric Bestrom
English Teacher Emeritus
Hmong American Partnership
St. Paul, MN

--- "Ginger Dempsey, LVNRV"
<gingerdempsey at verizon.net> wrote:


> We are hosting an International Potluck for our ESOL

> students and tutors and are in need of some ideas

> for games/activities.  Anyone have any thoughts?

> 

> Thanks for your help! 

> 

> Ginger Dempsey

> ESOL Coordinator, LVNRV

> ----------------------------------------------------

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