Take turns miming online below for your partner to guess. You can’t speak, but you can make noises if you need to.
- You are blowing your nose
- You are breaking your bread with your hands
- You are burping
- You are chewing a piece of gum
- You are chewing your food with your mouth open
- You are cleaning your teeth with a toothpick
- You are complaining to a waiter about your food
- You are covering your cup with your hand to refuse more drink
- You are eating cheese
- You are eating pork chops.
- You are eating snails
- You are eating spicy food
- You are eating with chopsticks
- You are eating with your hands
- You are eating with your left hand
- You are giving a bottle of wine to your hosts
- You are leaving some food on the edge of your plate
- You are lifting your plate or bowl off the table to eat
- You are mixing your food together on your plate
- You are mopping up your food with a piece of bread
- You are pouring a drink for yourself
- You are praying before you start to eat.
- You are putting a napkin on your lap
- You are putting some extra salt and pepper on your food.
- You are resting your elbows on the table
- You are slurping your soup
- You are talking with your mouth full
- You are tucking a napkin into the top of your shirt.
- You are wiping your mouth with a napkin
Do the thing or things from this list that your teacher tells you to, in the order that they say:
- Continue the game above, but with your partner guessing without looking at their sheet.
- Ask about anything above you aren’t sure about, working together as a class to think of related mimes each time
- Take turns choosing one of the things to compete to make the best mime for
Discuss these questions in the same groups:
- How often do you do the things above?
- What things do you think might be different in different countries?
- How could cultural differences make it difficult to plan a meal with people of different cultures?
- How could you politely tell someone from another country that they are doing something that is not considered good manners in your country? How can you respond if someone says that to you?
Classify these phrases related to the last topic above as giving advice (GA) or responding to advice (RA):
- (John), can I just mention something?
- (Mary), you might not know this, but…
- Ah, yes, I’d heard that before. Let me try it your way.
- Do you mind if I give you a little cultural tip?
- Is that right? I will try to remember that in the future.
- Oh, I’m terribly sorry. I had no idea.
- Really? I must remember that.
- This isn’t such a big thing, but you might want to know that…
- Whoops.
- You surprise me. In my country it’s the opposite.
Roleplay doing some things from above and giving advice when they do something that could be considered wrong.
Choose one foreign country and describe what the table manners and other food and drink customs are in that country. See if your partner guess which country you are talking about, then take turns doing the same.
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