Cultural Assimilator

1. Cultural Assimilator Area: Meals for house guests

2. Too much food • Instructions: Read the following paragraph, then choose one of the three possible answers to explain the problem that it described. You will see an indication of the correct response: • A. A visiting scholar, Ms. Wong, attended a family dinner at her home-stay host's family. She wanted to be polite, so she declined to take food from the serving dish that was presented to her. But afterward, her hostess looked uncomfortable. Why?

3. What’s the proper response? 1. Ms. Wong should have accepted the food, even if she didn't want it. 2. Ms. Wong should have waited to be offered the food again, so that she would not seem too greedy. 3. Ms. Wong should have thanked the hostess for offering, then either accepted or declined the food. The proper response is #3

4. Left-overs B. A host for a visiting scholar usually saved the unused part of the dinner in the refrigerator, and served it to the guest on the next day. 1. The guest should have accepted the food the next day; it is normal to eat leftovers in a family dinner. 2.The guest should have been offended; it is impolite to offer used food to a guest. 3. The guest should have asked for a freshly-cooked meal. The proper response is #1

5. Prayers before meals C. Before eating dinner at a family meal, the host asked for silence, and said a prayer for the meal. 1. In some families, it is customary to "say Grace" before starting a meal, so the guest should be silent. 2. The guest did not need to be silent, since the guest was not of the same religion as the host. 3. The host was trying to encourage the guest to join the religion of the host family, so he should repeat what the host said. The proper response is # 1.

6. “Oh, no, not again!” D. The visiting guest was disappointed in the food that was offered for the everyday dinner. But the guest did not want to seem impolite. The best thing to do was 1. Do nothing, just accept the fact that eating habits are different in different cultures 2. After dinner, start a conversation with the hostess to ask about the possibility of getting more of a variety of food. 3. Tell the family at the table about one's preferences in food. The proper response is #2

7. Children’s questions E. The children of the host were very excited about having a house guest, so they asked many questions at the dinner table. Some of the questions made the guest uncomfortable. The best thing to do was 1. Answer all the questions; Americans like honesty at all times 2. Keep silent; there's no reason to feel forced to respond to embarrassing questions 3. Tell the children that you will answer the questions in private, after dinner. The proper response is #3