Travel etiquette is something which often appears in coursebooks. It’s a rich topic for discussion. This article from Lonely Planet has lots of tips about table manners around the world, some of which are ‘corrected’ in the comments below.
What would you do with this article in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context it is used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)
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(Almost) Infinite ELT Ideas 
Comments on: "Travel Etiquette: Food and Drink" (7)
Really great article! I’d start by matching the “tradition” with the locations using matching cards. Then let students check with the article.
I’d then ask them if they think they are all true and in pairs guess which aren’t correct.
Then I’d let them look at the comments section and see if They had guessed the same things and who they believe, the travel guide or the comments? (looking at critical thinking)
The I could either let them do a web quest and find out which ones really are true OR create their own travel guide for Ukraine (especially with euro 2012) and include some fake tips.
if other teachers around the world did this we could share our travel guides and guess which ones aren’t true. (perhaps even making a global connection like the 7th of the 30 goals challenge!)
Brilliant article. Thank you. However, the real fun is in the comments … because according to them, most of the advice in the article is WAY off. I would probably read the article and ask students to predict how accurate the information was, then let them loose on the comments to check. (As always, there’s no real way of telling which opinion is more trustworthy, that’s the fun of the internet, I suppose)
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Hello again Sandy
I don’t see a contact button, so I’m commenting here & it has nothing to do with the post…
Do you know this website???:
http://changethis.com/manifesto
I think it might be a good resource, but I don’t have too many ideas off hand… It might be something you could use?
Thanks Catherine 🙂 Quite happy for you to offer ideas – I’ll probably post it in May as have a special theme planned for April. Are you on Twitter? That’s probably the best way to contact me. You could also add ideas to the About page, any page on the site (like you already did) or through the facebook page – the Like button is to the right of the screen.
Have a great weekend!
Sandy
Hi Sandy,
I recently used this lesson to good effect. The only hitch was that the Lonely Planet article no longer had the comments section which Chris refers to above.
I did a little searching and came up with this article which has the comments section intact, allowing a contrast between the article and what the readers thought.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/11/dining-etiquette-around-the-world_n_3567015.html
Thanks Andrew, and thanks for finding another link to comments. Glad to hear it went well! What age/level did you use it with?