C is for cookie

Not for Estonians... Perhaps, better said in my world these days C is for Culture

I am cross-posting a little bit with my teaching blog; perhaps because I can't get my head around an interesting episode from last week.

Let me start at the beginning.

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?
The beloved characters of Big Bird, Bert & Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, and Cookie Monster from this educational program are not part of my students' cultural background. Exported to many other places in Europe, it appears that Sesame Street did not make it to this Nordic, Baltic country. I began my class last week with a mention of Cookie Monster that turned into a longer conversation about children's programming. I am appalled and may just need to import some programming into my classwork. Don't these kinds of characters cross cultural differences?

Chocolate chip cookies are chewy
In the midst of an activity looking at how to use and make a rubric for objective evaluation, I learned about another important cultural difference to do with cookie preferences.

First, we looked at a rubric rating the deliciousness of chocolate chip cookies from Teachervision.com. Next, we tasted a locally purchased store-bought cookie (dry, hard, full of preservatives) and rated it. Using the rubric's guidelines along with my own cultural values, it was clear to me that the first cookie should rate rather poorly (I gave it 13/20 points). For comparison, we then tasted and rated a homemade cookie fresh the same day from the oven of my home kitchen (soft, very chewy, not burnt, home ingredients). Using the rubric and my cultural intuition, there was no question that this was a better cookie (perhaps a bit egotistically, I give it 20/20 points).



You can probably already guess the outcome. First of all, the adults I was working with were unfamiliar with the use of rubrics. Secondly, they did not use the scoring guide and instead used their own personal backgrounds to determine the tastiness of the cookie. They gave a point value, but they could not justify it using the scoring rubric we had studied. The first store bought cookie got 17/20 points from my students. My homemade version got 11-13/20 points. When asked to justify their decision, the learners replied that they did not understand the "chewy" criteria. Apparently chewy is a negative cookie quality for an Estonian audience, and they could not reconcile their own opinions with the guide and the cookie samples.

C is for cultural differences
Confused that my cookies were not the obvious favorites, I marched around to gather second opinions from anyone who would taste one of my cookies. Much to my chagrin, I discovered this cookie preference extends beyond the borders of Estonia. I proceeded to take my cookies to other Europeans and interrogate them for an evaluation of "chewy." As it turns out, most Europeans I asked (German, Danish, British) preferred a dry cookie over a soft one. Hmph. I just can't let it go. Who is right? How should a proper chocolate chip cookie be? As it turns out, Americans invented the chocolate chip cookie (heard of Tollhouse, anyone?), but that probably isn't enough to make me right. Living cultures adapt and redefine, so I suppose we are all right.

I can't resist but end this posting with a very catchy cookie song from a musical I saw last summer called A Year with Frog and Toad.



What about you? Chewy & moist or dry & crunchy cookies?

Walking like an Egyptian

The Bangles almost had it right. I made my bus to Tallinn finally and spent one week walking like an Egyptian (although the vacation mostly involved sunbathing, eating, and snorkeling) in a tourist resort in Sharm el Sheikh. Here, for your viewing pleasure, are some of the highlights.

Marooned... but at least there's Internet

You've got to appreciate a country where Internet is a basic right. You find it in the usual places such as libraries and cafes. Here in Estonia, you also find it in the forest in the middle of nowhere (denoted by a square blue sign with an @ sign). Remarkably, Estonian Internet access is also free, even at the Tallinn airport. I don't know why the attitude towards offering Internet services is so different here than in other places, but I am often grateful.

Now is one of those moments. I've been working in Kuressaare, a town on the biggest Estonian island of Saaremaa, for the last week and planned to return to the mainland this evening. However, as we all know, the best laid plans are often foiled. There is a windstorm and none of the ferries have been operating today. Nothing to do but await the return of bus services; Internet access is a welcome distraction at the moment as I am nervous about the return. You see, I have booked a wonderful SUN vacation to Egypt, and my flight leaves tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. The last bus possibility today from the island, if the ferries are operating, is at 5:30 p.m. Keep your fingers crossed... in the meanwhile, I'll be nervously surfing through my exile from the mainland.