Culture Clash

​Culture Clash

1) What foreign cuisines can you get in restaurants in your city? Do you ever eat in any of these places? If yes, what do you normally order?

2) Are there many specialist shops selling foreign food where you live? Do you ever buy anything there?

3) What Russian food do you / would you miss abroad? Is there anything you don't / wouldn't miss?

Read the introduction of an article about foreign food culture and living abroad. To what extent do you agree with the author's opinions?

Look around most big cities and you’ll find a wide range of restaurants serving foreign food and shops selling specialist products from abroad.

Some of them have perhaps been set up by adventurous locals trying to introduce something fresh and new. However, in most cases they were probably set up by foreigners who simply couldn’t cope with the food of their host country. These places represent everything their owners miss about their home countries. Essentially they say ‘I may love your people, your job opportunities, your climate, but let me show you what real food is!’ In fact, maybe we can say that you have only fully integrated into your new country when you have accepted its food culture. So if you’re living abroad, how are you finding its food culture? Are you used to it yet, or is full integration some way off?

​Read the rest of the article.
.
- Have you ever experienced any of the foods or eating habits mentioned in the article?
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- What do you think was the strangest thing mentioned? Which of them seem quite normal to you?

Drag and Drop

Complete the sentences:

1) I’ll never get used to ‘stinky tofu’. The name is very accurate – it smells like sweaty socks mixed with rotting fish! It's just so ​

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!

2) There’s sometimes almost a fight to get hold of the bill first! Generally speaking, back home we just ​

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the bill between everyone.

3) The other thing was that they used to have dinner at six o’clock every evening. I was ​

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by bedtime and it didn’t give me time to do anything beforehand!

4) I think I was actually quite ​

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before coming here, but the Scottish have introduced me to food from other countries – Indian, Thai, Mexican – all of which I love now.

Drag these tiles and drop them in the correct blank above

off-putting

split

starving

unadventurous

Match

Match the words with their definitions:

• off-putting

• split

• starving

• unadventurous

making you not want to eat it

divide equally

very hungry

not brave

• making you not want to eat it

• divide equally

• very hungry

• not brave

Drag and Drop

Complete the sentences:

1) I can’t stand the way it smells! Why would you put something which is basically ​

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cow fat in your mouth?

2) Sometimes you choose something which doesn’t ​

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that nice and the food goes to waste. It would be better if people shared more.

3) I thought it was really weird, but then I tried it and I quite like it now. It’s not so different to ​

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butter on bread.

4) In general, there’s a lot more good food here and people tend to buy fresh food every day and cook, rather than buying lots of ​

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from the supermarket.

Drag these tiles and drop them in the correct blank above

mouldy

turn out to be

spreading

ready meals

Match

Match the words with their definitions:

• mouldy

• turn out to be

• spread

• ready meals

rotten

end up being

put

pre-cooked meals

• rotten

• end up being

• put

• pre-cooked meals

​an off-putting smell
starving by dinner time
unadventurous eater / life
mouldy bread / cheese

to split (the bill)
to turn out to be (nice / worse)
to spread butter
to put (you) off

ready / pre-cooked meals

• Does Russia share any of these foods or eating habits?

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• What food and eating habits in Russia do you think foreigners might find weird?

​🌎 🥗 🥘