| Insight into a Foreign Culture | | | | the country, Cali has but a bare few. |
| One excellent insight into a foreign culture is through its | | | | Domino's Pizza, Dunkin Donuts and Pizza Hut yet |
| foods. For example, ask almost any English as a | | | | remain. When the three McDonald's locations that |
| foreign language learner, "What do Americans eat?" | | | | were in Cali suddenly closed about three years ago, |
| and their response is very likely to be, "hamburgers, hot | | | | the Caleños were left without the benefit of that |
| dogs and French fries". Certainly there's far more to | | | | bastion of American fast food. You can still get a |
| American food than that. (They left out the beer and | | | | decent burger here and there at selected fast food |
| soft pretzels.) Such sweeping generalizations are | | | | locations with onions, tomato, lettuce, sauces and "the |
| generally way wrong by a landslide. | | | | works", but nothing like a Big Mac or its brethren. It was |
| It would most definitely be grossly incorrect to say that | | | | a blow to English language teaching Expats here in |
| they eat only arepas, coffee and sancocho in | | | | Cali, Colombia. |
| Colombia or that Mexicans eat beans and tortillas or | | | | Losing an Institution |
| even that Germans drink beer, eat sausages and | | | | Although I have never tried a "Super Burger" at Top's |
| sauerkraut. How about saying that the Japanese | | | | Restaurant or been to Wally's (or Vancouver for that |
| consume mostly fish, rice and tea or that Jamaicans | | | | matter), I know how it feels to lose an institution you |
| scarf down mostly Red Stripe beer, ackee, jerked | | | | grew up with. For me it's Nick's foot-long submarines |
| pork and salt fish? While these and other typical food | | | | on Washington Boulevard in south Baltimore. |
| examples may be true to some small extent, they're | | | | So while you or your English language learners are |
| hardly gospel. | | | | studying English, don't forget to closely consider the |
| Speaking of Hamburgers ... | | | | food as part of the language and culture. The same |
| But speaking of hamburgers, when John Chow posted | | | | holds true for other foreign languages as well. Just as |
| on his blog that "Wally's was Closing Its Doors" it | | | | with movies, songs and music, the study of its foods |
| flashed me back to the availability of hamburgers here | | | | can surely be an excellent insight into English or |
| in Cali, Colombia. Many major American fast food | | | | another foreign language and its related culture. |
| chains maintain a presence in Bogotá, | | | | What do people like to eat where YOU live? |
| Colombia's capitol city. However, here in the south of | | | | |