solely to the women and the girls in the family. Men and boys of age 12 and
above are not even expected to sit in the kitchen, which is separate from
the main house.
Most families eat two meals a day. The two meals are lunch and supper.
Breakfast is just a cup of tea or a bowl of porridge.
When a meal is ready, all members of the household wash their hands
and sit down on floor mats. Hands have to be washed before and after the
meal. At mealtime everybody is welcome; visitors and neighbors who drop in
are expected to join the family at a meal.
Food is served by the women. "Sauce" — a stew with vegetables, beans,
butter, salt, and curry powder — is served to each person on a plate.
Sometimes fish or beef stew is served.
Normally a short prayer is said before the family starts eating.
During the meal, children talk only when asked a question. It is bad
manners to reach for salt or a spoon. It is better to ask someone sitting
close to it to pass it. It is also bad manners to leave the room while
others are still eating. Everyone respects the meal by staying seated until
the meal is over. Leaning on the left hand or stretching ones legs while at
a meal is a sign of disrespect and is not tolerated.
People usually drink water at the end of the meal. It is considered
odd to drink water while eating.
When the meal is finished, everyone in turn gives a compliment to the
mother by saying, "Thank you for preparing the meal, madam." No dessert is
served after the meal. Fruits like papaya, pineapple, or sweet bananas are
normally eaten as a snack between meals.
Cuisine & Etiquette in Sierra Leone
In Sierra Leone, the staple food is rice. "If I haven't had my rice, I
haven't really eaten today," is a popular saying of this people. They eat
rice at least twice a day. Only women and girls prepare the food.
If you visit a there friend, he or she will almost always invite you
to stay and eat. Sharing is an important part of life in Sierra Leone!
Everyone washes their hands before they eat, and then they gather in a
circle with a huge dish of food placed in the middle.
The oldest males get the choicest food, the best pieces of meat or
fish. Then the young males take the next best pieces, and then finally the
women and girls get any meat or fish that is left. Sometimes the women and
girls wait until the men and boys have had all they want before they eat.
Rice is eaten with the hands by squeezing or rolling it into a ball,
dipping it into the sauce, and then popping it into the mouth. When
everyone finishes eating, they wash their hands and thank the cook.
When you are eating, you usually don't talk. Talking shows a lack of
respect for the food. It is rude to lean on your left hand while you are
eating. People usually drink water only after a meal is over.
Many ingredients go into sauces or stews to go with rice. The most
popular sauces are made of greens. Other common ingredients include palm
oil, onions, tomatoes, yams, and red peppers. Sometimes peanut oil or
coconut oil are used. Sources of protein that go into the sauces include
peanuts and beans, as well as fish, chicken, goat meat, or pork. Seafood,
such as oysters, lobster, and crab, may also be used. Most of the calories,
however, come from rice, which is eaten in large quantities.
Fruits include oranges, bananas, papayas, lemons, avocados,
watermelon, mangoes, and pineapples. Fruit is usually eaten as a snack.
Plantains (cooking bananas) are sometimes sliced and fried as chips for a
snack. Tea and coffee are drunk in some parts of the country for breakfast.
Coke and beer are popular with people who can afford them.
PATTERNS OF SPEECH
A language is more than the sum of its words, its grammar, and the
expressive quality of its melody.
Language =Words+ Grammar + Melody + "?"
Every cultural group has unique patterns of speech — patterns for
doing things like giving and responding to compliments, saying no, and
forming business relationships. And even the most elementary of speech acts
— the greeting — is more complex than you might think!
THE U.S.A
Many visitors to the United States are perplexed every time an
American flashes one of those famous smiles, looks you straight in the eye,
exclaims "How are you?" —and then disappears without waiting to hear a
word. These visitors must feel like Alice in Wonderland, trying to
communicate with the White Rabbit. That's because they are taking the
question "How are you?" literally, as a request for information about ones
health and well-being. "How are you?" (when said in passing or as part of
an everyday greeting) may be a question according to the rules of grammar,
but in practice it is not a question at all! It is a friendly and polite
greeting. No one expects to give or hear a long answer. A one or two word
answer will do. In fact, it's considered rude to tell a long story.
When Americans are not simply greeting you and truly want to know how
you are, they may put a small emphasis on the word "are." How ARE you? Or,
to make the message absolutely clear, they might say "How ARE you, REALLY?"
Then you can tell a very long story indeed.
MOROCCO
In Moroccan Arabic, people greet each other with the words "Salaam Oo-
allay-kum." Ibis greeting means "Peace be with you." The response is "Oo-
allay-kum salaam" — "And with you peace." But the greeting does not end
there! Greetings in Morocco may continue for many minutes - sometimes as
long as half an hour — as people ask about each other's health, faith in
Allah, families, work, etc.
Moroccans shake hands when greeting, touching the heart immediately
after the handshake to show that the greeting is sincere. Sometimes instead
of touching the heart, they will kiss their own hand after the handshake as
a sign of particular esteem or affection. In the case of family members or
close friends, women greeting women and men greeting men will kiss each
other's cheeks back and forth a few times. In the north, it's right cheek-
left cheek-left cheek. In other parts of the country, it could be right-
left-right, or right-left only. How many times you kiss cheeks also depends
on how much you like the person, or how long it's been since you've seen
them. The longer it's been, the more kisses are exchanged.
4.CONTRAST RUSSIAN’S STEREOTYPES
A stereotype is a statement that simplifies human and social
realities. For example, a single quality is said to belong to every member
of a group: "Men hate to cook."
Prejudice is to prejudge: to form an opinion, usually negative, about
someone before you know many facts. "Richard can't cook - he's a guy!" If
you have seen the film Shrek, about an ogre who falls in love with a
princess, you may remember Shrek's lament — his sad complaint that "They
judge me before they even know me!"
Stereotypes and prejudice are based on incomplete or faulty
information. They get in the way of knowing people as individuals and of
understanding the world in a complex and sophisticated way; they can offend
& hurt people; and they can lead to serious misunderstandings.
NINE STATEMENTS ABOUT RUSSIA
The nine comments a non-Russian might make about Russians:
1. Russians are dreamers and not doers.
2. Russians are not materialistic. They consider other people more
important than what you can buy.
3. Russians value familiar faces and distrusts those they do not
know.
4. There is a right and a wrong way to do almost anything, and
Russians will not hesitate to tell you when you are doing something wrong —
or "nyekulturno."
5. Russians don't think about the future — they don't plan far
ahead. If they have money today, they spend money today.
6. Russians are certain that they are right, they know everything &
they have all the answers.
7. Russians are fatalistic — they feel nothing they can do will
make a difference.
8. Russians disapprove of people who are different or who break
social conventions (like Tattoo).
9. Russians are "lazy" — if you don't tell them what to do and
supervise them carefully they will do as little as possible or nothing at
all.
If we can understand what lies behind the stereotypes, we are able to
politely challenge or correct others' misperceptions if we so choose. We
all stereotype others sometimes
—and it can be a shock to hear about how others stereotype us. Just
think of a time you have stereotyped someone, as we all have, and imagine
their reaction if they heard your words!
For an explanation of each of the nine notions, we shall learn some
reasons that some observers and scholars might give as to why Russians may
appear to others the way they do.
1. As a general rule Americans are oriented towards doing. They
measure their own value, and that of others, by what & how much they do.
Ideas are not valued as highly as the practical application of ideas and
results. Russians are more oriented towards contemplating ideas and valuing
ideas in and of themselves. A Russian who attended an American/Russian
conference described the different ways each group would spend conference
evenings. "The Russians would sit all night drinking tea, discussing and
reflecting upon the events and ideas of the day, while the Americans would
be dunking of what they had to do the next day and preparing for it."
2. "It's better to have 100 friends than 100 rubles." Russians have
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