an appreciation for both japanese and american culture

books:


	• How My Parents Learned to Eat (Sandpiper Houghton Mifflin Books) Ina R. Friedman Houghton Mifflin, 1987 - 32 pages average customer review:based on 16 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Beware the Overt Generalities

It's helpful that this story is from a child's point of view, but it does not excuse the generalizations. Use it as a reference - as social authentication - of multi-ethnic relationships, but it is a dated work that carries the overt stereotypes of the time. Dress, behaviors, and erroneous beliefs mark the story.

cute culture marriage and comparison

very cute story about differences in American and japanese food etiquette, utensils, etc and overcoming differences to end in a marriage of cultures...a little questionable about the age of the girl who is dating an American sailor...but otherwise a cute story..(back then, not uncommon to get married young....)

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Great Book

This story is sweet and a great way to teach children about culture. No matter what culture you are you can learn to get along.

charming

my daughter has dozens, hundreds......SO many books......and yet she asks for me to read this one over and over again.....there is some simple sweet charm about it......and tonight, she read it to me.......i think part of the sweetness of it is the child's perspective of the parents' relationship.......i can't think of another book where a child tells about the parents falling in love.....it is unique and charming.....

an appreciation for both japanese and american culture

In How My Parents Learned to Eat, the author takes us on a journey to Japan in which an American sailor meets a Japanese high school girl. The narrator of the story is their daughter and she starts off saying, "In our house, some days we eat with chopsticks and some days we eat with knives and forks. For me, it's natural." The book illustrates the cultural differences and similarities of Japanese and Americans. John, the American sailor desperately wants to invite Aiko, the Japanese schoolgirl to dinner. However he is afraid since he does not know how to use chopsticks. Aiko, thinks that John is ashamed of asking her to dinner since she does not know how to use a fork and knife. Both secretly learn how to eat in each other's ways.

This book presents a very good view of life and culture in Japan (and some of America) while also introducing young children into basic table manners. We learn in the book the precise way to eat with spoons, knives, and forks, and we also learn the basics for using chopsticks. The culture of Japan is fully shown as well from all the signs being written in traditional Japanese characters to the mentioning of traditional clothes (the kimono). We are also introduced into how Asians drink soup-they drink from the bowl, which here in the United States would be considered inappropriate. Pictures of Japanese food and what they are called are also introduced to young children. The differences in how Americans and Japanese greet people are also touched upon as well. However what I liked most was the illustrations of the first and last pages of the book. The first page depicts their daughter in traditional Japanese clothing eating Japanese food with chopsticks, and with a rice cooker behind her. The last page of the book shows her in Western clothing eating steak and mashed potatoes with a toaster behind her. By this the book demonstrates an appreciation for both cultures.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

An American sailor courts a young Japanese woman and each tries, in secret, to learn the other's way of eating.

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