Hometown Cooking

Assignment #4

This week you will read an article about immigrants that have food sent to them from their home countries.

Click here to read the article "Hometown Cooking for Immigrants in New York".


Writing Topic:

1) If you could have any food sent to you from another country, what would it be? Whitney would like sweet and sticky rice desserts sent to her from Japan. Susan would like bread and cheese sent from France. What would you like?

2) Several of the immigrants in the article complained that some foods in the United States just don't taste the same as foods from their home countries. Is this true of a food you've eaten here? Explain.

Writing Focus

Good writers give a clear and interesting mental picture of things they write about. Describe your food using positive adjectives like these: Sweet, savory, delicious, tart, juicy, smokey, smooth, hot, spicy, healthy, fresh, tasty, rich, tender, light.

Here are some negative adjectives that can describe food: bland, greasy, tough, plain, overcooked, not fresh, unhealthy, fattening. Use these words to describe foods that you think taste bad or are bad for your health.

Thanks! Susan and Whitney

When I was a kid, things were so different...

Assignment #3

Hello everyone! This week we'll finish our look at manners around the world with one last writing on the topic.

In the online magazine we read, some of the students wrote about how manners have changed in their country over time. For example, Alessandra wrote that in Italy, children are not very well behaved in public compared to when she was a child.

Writing Topics:

1) Do you think manners have changed in your home country?

2) Do you think manners have changed in the United States?


Before your write, you can return to the international students' writing about Traditional Manners and Changing Manners. Read the students' writing again, and notice how the writers shift between talking about present time and past time.

Writing Focus

Talking about the Past

In English, verb tense is used to mark when an action occurs in time (past, present, or future). Adding -ed marks the past tense, will and going to to mark future tense, etc. But you will also often see particular words and phrases used when writers are comparing the present to the past. These time phrases help the reader to know when the writer is changing focus from one time to another.

Examples:

"Nowadays" and "these days" are phrases used to indicate present time.

Nowadays, people think more about their rights than their responsibilities.
These days, people are less likely to say "please" or "thank you".

There are many ways to mark past time. Here are some of them:

Store clerks in the past talked more with their customers.
For the past 50 years, people have been becoming more and more rude.
When I was a child, students were rarely rude to teachers.

Also, the verb "used to" shows a habit of the past.

In the U.S. many people used to smoke, but now it's not so popular.

And, lastly, the adverb "still" shows that something that was true in the past is true in the present also.

Most Americans still believe in teaching their children to say "please", "thank you" and "you're welcome".

In your writing this week, please use some time phrases to make your time references clear. Thanks!

Susan and Whitney

What should I know before I go?

ASSIGNMENT #2

This week we will continue reading and writing about manners. When visitors go to a new country, they sometimes make mistakes with their manners and accidentally offend people. For example, many immigrants who are new to the US don't understand how important it is to be on time ( be "punctual") in the US.

Writing Topic: 1) If I visited your home country, what manners would be most important for me to know about?

Before you begin writing, go back and read through the students' writing about traditional and changing manners. This time, look specifically for the advice that the writers give about travelling to their home countries. Look at the kinds of language that they use to give advice.

Click here to read the the students' writing about manners!

WRITING FOCUS

Using Modal Verbs to Give Advice and Express Possibility

You might have noticed that the student writers used many modal verbs in their writing. Modal verbs are words like can, could, should, would, may, and might, and phrases like ought to and had better. These words are often used in English to give advice or to talk about what is possible. For example, should, ought to, and had better have basically the same meaning. They mean "This is a good idea. This is good advice."

Examples:
In America, you should arrive to appointments on time.
In America, you ought to arrive to appointments on time.
In America, you had better arrive to appointments on time.

Also, may, might, and could are all used to talk about something that is possible.

Examples:

In America, you may offend someone if you don't shake hands when you meet.
In America, you might offend someone if you don't shake hands when you meet.
In America, you could offend someone if you don't shake hands when you meet.

In your writing this week, try to use some of these modal verbs and phrases. Give Whitney and Susan advice using should, ought to, or had better, and tell us what may/might/could happen to us in your country!

Assignment #1: Manners in America

Hello everyone!

THIS WEEK'S ASSIGNMENT:

This week we will look at a web page where international students of English have written a little about traditional manners. Manners are the way a person acts to show respect to others. If someone is rude or impolite, we say they have bad manners. On the web page, the students wrote about manners in their home countries.

Click here to read "Traditional Manners and Changing Manners".

Read the web page. Then return to the Lehmann 356 page. In the "Comments", write a paragraph (at least 6 sentences) that answers these questions:

1. Which manners that the students wrote about are different from manners in the United States?

2. Do you wish some of the manners in the US would change?


Before you begin writing, read the assignment again. Are you sure you understand the topic? Do you know what you are supposed to write? Make sure you have a clear understanding of the assignment before you begin. Think about what you will write. Make notes of your ideas on some paper so you don't forget them later.

WRITING FOCUS:

When you are writing in English, it is important to use good writing mechanics. "Mechanics" means using correct spacing, capital letters, and punctuation. If your writing has good mechanics, it will look nice on the page. If it has poor mechanics, your writing will look sloppy. Here are some points to remember when you are writing this week:

1) Always use a capital letter for a proper noun. A proper noun is a word that is a name for a specific person, place, or thing. For example, Ethiopia and China are names of countries, so they need a capital letter.

2) Always type one space after each word, and two spaces at the end of each sentence.

3) Use a period ( . ), a question mark ( ? ), or a exclamation point ( ! ) at the end of every sentence.