View Content #18049

Contributed by Li-Hsien Yang, East Asia Special Programs Coordinator at CASLS

Scenario: This activity is designed for students who are enrolled in Chinese Flagship Program.  Flagship students will exchange to Nanjing University as part of the requirement for their Capstone exchange program in China. This activity is designed to assist students to navigate information in China.

Each place has its food navigation tool, for example

Japan http://www.hotpepper.jp/

China http://www.dianping.com/

Taiwan http://www.ipeen.com.tw/

Outcome:        Learners will be able to read comments and make decisions on the restaurants and dishes they would like to try based on their search criteria.

Resources:      Sample Activity Sheet

Procedure:    

1. Pre-reading: (a) Have learners think about what sites they normally search for good food in the United States (Yelp for example). Brainstorm about how they choose a restaurant - based on comments from the customers, pictures, number of stars, etc. (b) Introduce the food navigation tool in China (Dazhongdianping), or similar tool for your target country. You can first narrow down to a specific city (for example, Nanjing).

2.  Learners will work in groups of 3-4 people. After they select the area they want to explore, they will work in groups and find the top three restaurants and at least 3 dishes from each restaurant they want to try and why.

3. Each group will have to share their list with the class.

4. The whole class can select the top 3 restaurants.

5.Ask the learners to reflect on the whole selection process. What did they find challenging (for example, reading comments, how to narrow down the search, or names in Chinese dishes)?