The Pineapple vs. the Papaya

Tonight, I had another session of my Adult Intermediate Class. Although I had a rocky start with this class, I have really grown to enjoy the company of the four very different people who come into my classroom every Monday and Thursday from 8:15 to 9:45, in order to learn a bit of English.

Today, I had them do a presentation. I divided the class in half and gave one half of the class a pineapple, the other a papaya. Each half of the class had to persuade me that I absolutely needed its "product" in my life, more than I needed the other one.

I had picked out these two fruits pretty much at random, walking into the corner supermarket. But I learned some interesting things about the pineapple and the papaya in Chinese culture. For instance, the papaya is used in traditional Chinese medicines for, among other things, aiding digestion and--I kid you not--breast enlargement. I guess that, for the Chinese, you need big papayas to get big papayas. Pineapples, on the other hand, are a traditional Chinese symbol of prosperity. I explained that in America, pineapples have traditionally been a symbol of hospitality. My students (and I) learn something new every day.

Toward the end of the class tonight, we got off onto the subject of Western table manners. I had not really thought about how confusing eating with a knife and fork can be for people who have used chopsticks all their lives. They seemed interested in learning about the intricacies of salad forks v. desert forks, and so forth. I am not exactly a world expert in this, but am more than willing to prepare a class on this topic.