A tasty food run for lunch! After the first hour of teaching on a warm and sunny day, my supervisor was getting hungry. He was very hungry, and asked if we can all go to the local Costco just down the street to get lunch. I expected to walk, but we drove instead, all together, anticipating a great meal. But there was a catch: I was to show the students how to order the food, and the students would order what they want to eat. Seems simple enough, right? Well, the reality of it all is that ordering food is downright scary for some people. Especially without knowing how to pronounce what you want to eat! My Asian students likely skips Mexican food for Chinese cuisine during a regular day. Today, however, they leaped out of the comfort zone to order something new. As my students and I neared the cashier to take our order, my previously calm students, quietly rehearsing their order with each other, suddenly vented an urgent sense of panic. One person to go to satisfy our hunger.
"Excuse me! What do I say again?" Of all the food items, they choose to try a Mexican specialty with a hard-to-pronounce name. Good practice, I think to myself, but maybe we need more time to get it right. Carne Asada. Car-nay A-sa-da. Two carne asadas. They're not finding this easy. I have doubts whether I am pronouncing them correctly myself.
I try my best to ease my student who will make the order. "You can say: Can I have two carne asadas? They'll understand, you'll do just fine." I imagine the worst that can happen is to put up two fingers and point to the picture to express a non-verbal order.
"Next please." The cashier call us up to the counter, and in the moment to shine with all that we rehearsed, my student collects his thoughts, puts up two shaky fingers and says clearly: "Two car-nay a-sa-das." He looks over at me with a sigh of relief as the cashier repeats his order correctly. I smile at him to congratulate him on the accomplishment and improvisation. Next time, it is someone else's turn.
Mission: Ordering food for the first time in the U.S. Result: Success and a satisfied appetite!
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