La Soupe tonkinoise au Québec- another way to show diversity in French speakers in the classroom

When we think of concepts and culture to teach in the classroom, sometimes we come up short- short of the classics.  As a French teacher, it is really difficult to move away from the typical fare of textbooks (the Eiffel Tower, Paris, galettes de roi, Crêpes, Centre Pompidou, castles in the Loire, etc.).  It seems like the entire reputation of French class rests on fashion and Paris and Je suis Charlie.  While these are incredibly important elements of Francophone life, there are millions of people running around, living their lives and speaking French who never get air time in our classrooms, and thus our students may only find out about them by chance- not a very good strategy to ensure that these voices of la Francophonie are heard.

This problem can extended to include any world language being taught.  What about the Hakka or the Muslim population in Xi'an when teaching Chinese?  What about the differences between the Oxacans and the people who live in Puebla? What about Nicaragua as opposed to Peru?  Of course, by now I'm sure that your defenses are up and you are thinking that the world is so vaste that no one can possibly teach all of that!

Yes, that is true, but we can change the lens we look through on a daily basis to include whenever possible these "others"; this is not really something that we do once, but a way to teach that compels us to learn alongside our students while we teach.  After all, when we learn as teachers, more often than not, we are more motivated to continue our tenure in the classroom.

So, in the spirit of this post, here is an activity on food in Québec on pho, the Vietnamese soup whose name may or may not have come from the French pot au feu.  In doing this listening activity, it's also important to talk about French Indochina and its legacy.

Bonne dégustation!

Here is a link to how to pronounce the word pho:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgX2q9WPoqo

Here is the link to the listening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zuv6--ryfI&feature=channel

Here are the questions:

Avec un(e) partenaire, divisez les questions en deux parties.  Chaque personne trouve la réponse à 4 questions.  Puis, échangez-les, et vérifiez si les réponses sont correctes.

1.     Il y a combien de tailles de bols?

2.     Comment ils appellent les différentes tailles au resto?

3.     La soupe vient de quelle région?

4.     La version qu’on trouve à Montréal vient surtout du sud ou du nord?  Pourquoi?

5.     Que veut dire le mot « pho »?

6.     Est-ce qu’on peut manger cette soupe au petit déjeuner au Vietnam?

7.     A quelle heure?

8.     Après un party, on s’arrête à un marchand _______________.