Larissa's Conversation With Konami

by Larissa Kuo

Teach your partner the Chinese vocabulary words for the tastes (sweet, salty, spicy, sour, bitter). Ask your partner to teach you these words in Japanese. Take notes.

Tell your partner about your favorite Japanese food. Ask them to introduce a place to get it at. Ask your partner if there are any Taiwanese foods they know and like, or would like to try.

-Shushi -eel rice -Japanese curry -ramen -sashimi -yakisoba -onigiri

Ask your partner how and where they have lunch at school. What is the process? Tell your partner about how you have lunch.

we find a partner or a friend, find a table anywhere, and eat together.

Give examples of Taiwanese food that foreign people probably have not had before. Ingredients, taste, the occasion for eating… (include visuals)

-香菜 - 皮蛋 -celery -蚵仔麵線 -蔥油餅

Give examples of drinks that foreign people may not have had before. Ingredients, taste, the occasion for eating… (include visuals)

-salty soy milk -貢丸湯

Introduce a Taiwanese (or Chinese) food restaurant that you would recommend visitors to eat at. What are the “must-have” dishes? (visuals, Google maps, etc.)

小南門 鼎泰豐 永和豆漿

Do your partners' parents cook? How often? How often do you eat out? What sort of food does your partner's family usually have when you eat out? What sort of food does your partner eat themselves when they are with their friends?

What does “eating” mean? What is important when eating? What does your partner care about when eating? Explain your own thoughts.

Eating means happiness, it is important to eat the food you actually enjoy.

Prepare two more questions you want to ask your partner about “food and eating in Japan” or “the area your partner lives in”.

1. What do they know?

-bubble tea -stinky tofu -

2. What do they not know?

-mandarine -native Taiwanese ppl -our culture

3. What would they be interested in knowing?

-our food -special sceneries -fun

4. What do you want to tell them?

-how free our country is -how we are not part of china

5. What sort of information or basic knowledge do they need (or you need to give them) to make the conversation go more smoothly?

-our language -basic information about us. -who we are.

I told her about oyster noodles, and she seemed pretty disgusted. If I were her, I would also be disgusted because I just don't like the taste of the sea when I eat oysters.

I asked about Japanese sushi, she said there are different kinds of sushi. There are raw meat fish sushi, grilled fish sushi, and also half raw half cooked ones. I was really surprised when I heard there were a lot of different kinds of sushi. I have never tried sushi that has grilled fish on.

Since I have never met her before, it was pretty awkward at the start of our conversation. I talked to her very formally and tried to maintain my tone. But when I am around my friends, we speak in an informal way, and we talk about very random things.

I know that we are supposed to teach them Chinese, but my partner really doesn't know Chinese. So I talked to her mostly in English, so I think language is important. and also it was really noisy on her side and my side. So we had a little trouble understanding.

Language is definitely important, and also you have to be prepared. If you didn't prepare beforehand, you will really have no idea how to start the conversation and how to bring topics up.

Choices: Bring your own or eat from the cafeteria cafeteria have:

1. Ramen
2. Noodles
3. Rice, with stuff on top, and it changes every day

They buy a ticket and give it to the lunch lady, then they provide the food. Or students buy it from a shop for bento boxes Whoever buys food eats at the cafeteria Who brings from home eats in class Foods in the cafeteria are not very healthy.

Japan is getting better now, but ppl go around everywhere and move around a lot during the golden week, but it got a bit better. This year they don’t have online school anymore.

covid- Depending on the city, Osaka is 4000. She’s has three shots already