RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

Just did cooking day for camp. My CT and I decided toast, with different toppings, would be best. Yes, it's not the most creative, but for elementary school kids it's foolproof and relatively easy to clean up.

I brought a few things from home so the kids could sample different things; imported rye bread, different types of cheeses, decent butter, Marmite, baked beans, some Rooibos tea for after and even some peri-peri and chutney (had nothing to put it on, but brought it so they could taste it) etc.

It was pretty discouraging to see how apprehensive and averse the students were to trying anything new. They all just say there munching away at Spam and the most processed Lotte mart cheese you could imagine. The HR teacher came to "help" for the day and even she wasn't interested in sampling anything I brought. I told them these were from my home and some of the items were difficult to find outside South Africa or the UK, they'd likely never get the opportunity to try it again... no dice.

The only people who seemed to be raised with some manners were my CT and 2 girls who were courteous enough to sample a few of the things I brought. Incidentally, these 2 girls are the smartest students at camp.

Childhood was a long time ago, but I do remember seeing and reading that curiosity and the desire to try new things is a natural part of childhood. Sure, not all children are going to be so open, but when an entire class isn't interested in trying something new, that points to a possible problem.

Just did cooking day for camp. My CT and I decided toast, with different toppings, would be best. Yes, it's not the most creative, but for elementary school kids it's foolproof and relatively easy to clean up.

I brought a few things from home so the kids could sample different things; imported rye bread, different types of cheeses, decent butter, Marmite, baked beans, some Rooibos tea for after and even some peri-peri and chutney (had nothing to put it on, but brought it so they could taste it) etc.

It was pretty discouraging to see how apprehensive and averse the students were to trying anything new. They all just say there munching away at Spam and the most processed Lotte mart cheese you could imagine. The HR teacher came to "help" for the day and even she wasn't interested in sampling anything I brought. I told them these were from my home and some of the items were difficult to find outside South Africa or the UK, they'd likely never get the opportunity to try it again... no dice.

The only people who seemed to be raised with some manners were my CT and 2 girls who were courteous enough to sample a few of the things I brought. Incidentally, these 2 girls are the smartest students at camp.

Childhood was a long time ago, but I do remember seeing and reading that curiosity and the desire to try new things is a natural part of childhood. Sure, not all children are going to be so open, but when an entire class isn't interested in trying something new, that points to a possible problem.

yeah, but marmite is gross.

on a similar note though, i did cooking day yesterday and had bought guacamole for the students to have with the quesadillas we made. only like 4 students ended up trying it (to be fair, it did end up being pretty gross and i think maybe word got around super fast)

Yeah, the stuff you brought is pretty normal. Like, you brought OTHER cheeses. If you brought something really out of left field.. like Marmite (which you did) then fine, I get it.

Spam? This salami is like that.

Cheese? This is LIKE that slice shit you're eating.

Chutney? It's jam.

Peri-peri? It's like a gochu-garu chicken.

This stuff is not like bringing anchovy pizza to a frat party. If they try it and don't like it, fine, I can respect that. But you're not even going to TRY salami? Jesus.

I did ice cream sundaes for camp (put loads of stuff in a ziplock bag and smash them together - build your sundae. (marshmellows, choco chips, digestives, one ice cream, choco sauce, sprinkles) thought it was fool proof as everyone likes these things. Nope. Too sweet, they wouldn't eat most of it.

Anyway, on the topic of Marmite. I hate the stuff, but I always bring a squeezy jar back from the UK each year for my UK culture class. Show an advert explaining the love it hate it divide, make 5 kids try it and decide if the class loves it or hates it. Goes down a right treat. Thinking of bringing over a couple of other controversial things this time, salad cream perhaps?

It was pretty discouraging to see how apprehensive and averse the students were to trying anything new.


I agree Aristocat. I had a conversation with one of my students who went to the Philippines for 3 weeks to study English. Upon his return I asked him how he enjoyed Philippine food. His reply was, 'I don't know, I never ate any, I took my Korean food with me and what I didn't have the school supplied me with my Korean needs.'

Blows my mind.

I have Korean friends that visit me in the Philippines and they arrive with huge bags full of Korean noodles, rice (yes, they actually bring rice to the Philippines, talk about carrying coals to Newcastle) and of course huge amounts of kimchi which makes my fridge stink for weeks and of course as soon as they open a container of kimchi my house is infested with flies....ughh!!!

Must be a bit depressing when you put in a whole lot of effort and money to present new experiences and the kids refuse to get involved. 

  On a happier note, one of my favourite camp lessons is about flavours.
 We talk about each flavour, and at the end of each I let them taste an example of it:

Sweet: a bunch of 마이쮸s.
Salty:  cheese doritos
...
...and here is where it gets fun (for me):
...
Umami: dollop of deonjang paste
Sour: a soju cup full of lemon/lime juice
Bitter: cacao nibs, or paper soju cup filled with the darkest black iced tea (poured from a 2 liter jug) I can make.
Spicy: Tabasco in a paper cup. (I used to do it with bread cubes soaked in capcisum sauce... ...until "the incident").

The kids really get excited about the samples, even though they know it'll probably be nasty. 

Just did cooking day for camp. My CT and I decided toast, with different toppings, would be best. Yes, it's not the most creative, but for elementary school kids it's foolproof and relatively easy to clean up.

I brought a few things from home so the kids could sample different things; imported rye bread, different types of cheeses, decent butter, Marmite, baked beans, some Rooibos tea for after and even some peri-peri and chutney (had nothing to put it on, but brought it so they could taste it) etc.

It was pretty discouraging to see how apprehensive and averse the students were to trying anything new. They all just say there munching away at Spam and the most processed Lotte mart cheese you could imagine. The HR teacher came to "help" for the day and even she wasn't interested in sampling anything I brought. I told them these were from my home and some of the items were difficult to find outside South Africa or the UK, they'd likely never get the opportunity to try it again... no dice.

The only people who seemed to be raised with some manners were my CT and 2 girls who were courteous enough to sample a few of the things I brought. Incidentally, these 2 girls are the smartest students at camp.

Childhood was a long time ago, but I do remember seeing and reading that curiosity and the desire to try new things is a natural part of childhood. Sure, not all children are going to be so open, but when an entire class isn't interested in trying something new, that points to a possible problem.

see now this is why i refused to do a cooking camp.
 I did a game related to Cinco de Mayo and no one even cared. the students actually asked my why i was showing them about the holiday and different food etc...I realized early on the give ZERO f's about anything different.
so I will say I'm sorry no one even really tried anything, and thank you for at least trying.

Yeah, many of the students, and even teachers....don't think many things we teach are relevant to them and so therefore do not care.....even if there is a connection the kids and teachers don't see it, Generally similar I think around the world with kids, but adults are usually better.... but in reference to trying new things...I think many people are guilty of that no matter where they are from

The average kid aged 6 to about 13 or so is not going to be very adventurous. Does anyone here not remember being a kid? Like seriously, are you guys that bad at knowing how kids think?

What did we as kids do? We picked toppings off of supreme pizzas. We screamed to go to McDonald's again and again even though mom and dad wanted to try the local diner or whatever.  Green Skittles? In the bin.  While our parents ate wheetabix we ate 3 bowls of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs.

When I look at the different foods Korean kids eat and compare it to what I ate as a kid, they have way more variety in terms of ingredients.

Things Korean kids are eating that many of us would not eat when we're young (or even now)-
Snails
Mushrooms
Chicken Feet
Intestines
Liver
Lung meat
Blood Sausage
Pig Feet
Chicken Butt
Sea Squirt
Fish Eggs
Silkworm Pupae
Mystery Seafood
Various vegetables they're forced to wolf down
Bean paste broths
Tofu

Off the top of my head I wouldn't eat the following things as a kid-
Olives
Mushrooms
Peas
Anything spicy
Any white cheese except on pizza and parmesean cheese
Shellfish
Eggplant
Grapefruit
Cucumber
Beets

People's tastes change. Don't freak out over your kids eating preferences at this point in their life. They're kids. They are driven as much by advertising and their peers as anything else. And please, don't pretend that kids back home are little Anthony Bourdain's. If you offered them a cafeteria lunch from Korea or China, they'd probably freak out and throw it away.

If you can't remember your own childhood well and accurately, you probably shouldn't be teaching young kids.

I'm not sure that British or North American kids would be much more receptive to unfamiliar foods, to be honest. At least not the ones I've spent time around. In fact it's quite normal for adult Americans to have a long list of foods they don't like / won't eat, ranging from mushrooms to sushi to any ethnic food that hasn't been repurposed by one of the top five fast food chains. This is likely changing as younger people are exposed to more diverse foods, but you'll find huge numbers of baby boomers living in the suburbs who think that cabbage is gross, or Indian food is full of monkey brains and tapeworms. I like that a lot of parents don't indulge pickiness outside of the English-speaking world. I know it's a pain to fight with your kid about food, but it creates a really distorted perception of food and agriculture when you build a lengthy "won't eat" list for a kid by the time he or she is eight years old. 

Whoops, Martino got in first. And I actually agree with him. 

It was pretty discouraging to see how apprehensive and averse the students were to trying anything new. They all just say there munching away at Spam and the most processed Lotte mart cheese you could imagine.

Out there is some Korean who tried to teach her class of kids to eat whatever and is mystified the kids have zero interest in red pepper paste, sesame leaf, crab, kimchi, etc. and the kids are just munching away at the Oscar Meyer, Starkist, and Kraft singles for "Make Your Own Kimbap".

see now this is why i refused to do a cooking camp.
 I did a game related to Cinco de Mayo and no one even cared. the students actually asked my why i was showing them about the holiday and different food etc...I realized early on the give ZERO f's about anything different.
so I will say I'm sorry no one even really tried anything, and thank you for at least trying.

Guys, 8 year old kids typically aren't filled with cultural wanderlust. They don't even understand the world of adults and many social customs of their OWN country let alone one they have zero connection to.

Yes, Cinco de Mayo got about as much interest as a lesson on Chuseok would get back home. They're kids. Their interests at this age are their friends, maybe some sports, and cartoons and games and crap. You know, stuff that's FUN and about HAVING FUN. Not "A cultural exploration of the various places around the world, which you will have to do a worksheet on in a language some of you can barely speak, while you have a 50% chance of being talked down to by your teacher and a 50% chance of getting yelled at or having it turn into a teachable moment if you do something wrong." I'm shocked kids are lukewarm to such a possibility.

Heck back home, our "interest" in Cinco de Mayo for most seems to be confined to eating Americanized Mexican fare and getting absolutely wasted while at some point in the night lumping Salsa music in with Mexican culture and running around dressed like the Frito Bandito. 

see now this is why i refused to do a cooking camp.
 I did a game related to Cinco de Mayo and no one even cared. the students actually asked my why i was showing them about the holiday and different food etc...I realized early on the give ZERO f's about anything different.
so I will say I'm sorry no one even really tried anything, and thank you for at least trying.

Guys, 8 year old kids typically aren't filled with cultural wanderlust. They don't even understand the world of adults and many social customs of their OWN country let alone one they have zero connection to.

Yes, Cinco de Mayo got about as much interest as a lesson on Chuseok would get back home. They're kids. Their interests at this age are their friends, maybe some sports, and cartoons and games and crap. You know, stuff that's FUN and about HAVING FUN. Not "A cultural exploration of the various places around the world, which you will have to do a worksheet on in a language some of you can barely speak, while you have a 50% chance of being talked down to by your teacher and a 50% chance of getting yelled at or having it turn into a teachable moment if you do something wrong." I'm shocked kids are lukewarm to such a possibility.

Heck back home, our "interest" in Cinco de Mayo for most seems to be confined to eating Americanized Mexican fare and getting absolutely wasted while at some point in the night lumping Salsa music in with Mexican culture and running around dressed like the Frito Bandito. 

great  point but at some point what are you supposed to do with an after school class? now i know better. Games. FID

Usually every so often in the material, there is some culture blurb. I usually save the stuff till then. 9/10 it just flies by. 1/10 something seems to catch the students' eye and they ask about it and then spontaneously I'd elaborate. If they wanted to learn more, special lesson time.

Don't get me wrong, I learned the hard way to. I guess I was lucky in that I already had some inkling from back home what Koreans tended to enjoy in terms of foreign foods and what got their attention in terms of holidays.

With adults its pretty easy. "I don't care about Cinco de Mayo." "It involves drinking." "I love Cinco de Mayo."

It was pretty discouraging to see how apprehensive and averse the students were to trying anything new. They all just say there munching away at Spam and the most processed Lotte mart cheese you could imagine.

Out there is some Korean who tried to teach her class of kids to eat whatever and is mystified the kids have zero interest in red pepper paste, sesame leaf, crab, kimchi, etc. and the kids are just munching away at the Oscar Meyer, Starkist, and Kraft singles for "Make Your Own Kimbap".

yes, exactly. kids just like repetition. eating the same food, watching the same tv show/movies over and over, telling the same jokes, playing the same games

FID

Foreign Income Dividend?  Fur Is Dead? 

It was pretty discouraging to see how apprehensive and averse the students were to trying anything new. They all just say there munching away at Spam and the most processed Lotte mart cheese you could imagine.

Out there is some Korean who tried to teach her class of kids to eat whatever and is mystified the kids have zero interest in red pepper paste, sesame leaf, crab, kimchi, etc. and the kids are just munching away at the Oscar Meyer, Starkist, and Kraft singles for "Make Your Own Kimbap".

yes, exactly. kids just like repetition. eating the same food, watching the same tv show/movies over and over, telling the same jokes, playing the same games

While this is pretty much true, I don't think this is quite apt to the food tasting situation.

At my old school in the US, we had "International Day", and each class adopted a country.  They had to put together a display, do some kind of cultural presentation (often a folk dance),  and provide samples of a few dishes.  My experience was that many, many kids wanted to try the funny food ...

fair enough. i was fairly picky as a kid and would have definitely not wanted to try any different foods. what food did the kids get to try btw?

FID

Foreign Income Dividend?  Fur Is Dead? 

f**k it dude