Pide

Lessons From ESL

On Fridays I host an informal English Conversation class. The class has evolved from me standing at a wipe board giving a lesson to the a group of ladies who have bonded and want to practice their English with each other. I sit with the ladies and listen, gently correcting a pronoun here or explaining an idiom there, but most of the time it’s the ladies (with the occasional male) chatting away.

The newest addition to our group is a graduate student from Turkey.

When I was young, my mom used to say that a taxi driver in America was probably an educated man of class in his native country. The movie “Coming to America” is probably the most accurate depiction of a New American who enters America, but due to the language barrier, the education system, or even money has to take a low wage position to make ends meet. My Turkish addition has similar challenges. In Turkey, her husband is an orthopedic doctor. In America he was offered a position as a dishwasher because his English is not clear.

This past Friday, H (names are changed for privacy reasons) brought the group gifts and food. We were treated to a vegitarian version of pide, the Turkish version of pita. Since one of the ladies is a vegetarian, H made the pide with flour, salt, water, egg, and cheese.