1. Notes for CultureGrams Users: At a Glance Section
2. Did You Know?
3. Holiday Focus/Upcoming World Holidays
4. Teaching Idea: Food Fair
5. Quiz
6. Recipes
7. In the News: Guatemalan Drug Czar
8. Email Service Information & Forwarding Tool

At a Glance Section

At the end of each World Edition country report you'll find the At a Glance section. It includes an Events and Trends category, which is a great resource for keeping up to date with current events in places you don’t usually hear about on the news.

As editors update this section each year, they comb through several sources, select only the most important stories associated with each country, and then summarize them in an easily digestible bulleted format. Events and Trends cover recent elections, political reforms, natural disasters, membership in international organizations, economic trends, and much more. Also part of the At a Glance section is Contact Information, where you or your students can go to get in touch with the country’s embassy.

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• El Salvador has more than two hundred extinct volcanoes.
  
  
• British pirates arrived at Belize in the 17th century and took advantage of the islands and reefs to lure ships onto the rocks for looting.
  
  
• Honduras contains the largest pine forest in the world.
  
  
• The Panama Canal, a major international trade route, provides vital foreign-exchange earnings.
  
  
• More than 11 percent of Costa Rica's territory is reserved for national parks.

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Some Upcoming World Holidays

Cuba – Liberation Day – January 1
Commemorates the revolution of 1958 and 1959; it is preceded by the New Year's Eve festivities.

Greece – St. Basil's Day – January 1
A traditional day to give gifts, although many people now prefer to give gifts on Christmas.

Dominican Republic – Día de los Reyes – January 6
Day of Kings. Gifts are not exchanged on Christmas, but they are given to children on January 6.

Japan – Adult's Day – January 15
Those who will turn twenty during the year are honored as coming of age.

Mexico – St. Anthony's Day – January 17
Religious holiday when children take their pets to church to be blessed.

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Standard 1.1: Communicate in Languages Other Than English. Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions.

Standard 4.2: Develop Insight into the Nature of Language and Culture. Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own.

• CultureGrams World Edition
  

1. Put the class into groups of two or three. Assign each group a country from Central America (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama).
   
   
2. Using the CultureGrams Online Edition, have the groups look up recipes from their countries. Assign them to make one or two dishes at home.
   
   
3. In class the next day, arrange the desks around the classroom so they make small booths. Students should provide a poster with the name of their country and
   dish(es).
   
   
4. Group members should take turns touring their classmates' booths and trying small portions of food. Students manning the booth should offer a brief introduction--in Spanish--to the country (i.e. where it is, what its climate is like, etc.) and to the food (describing ingredients, flavor, etc.). They should also demonstrate dining etiquette as found in the Eating section of the CultureGram they read. After sampling the food, visitors to the booth should offer reactions to the food in Spanish.
   
   
5. After all the students have had time to visit each booth, meet back together as a class and discuss similarities and differences they noticed in ingredients and etiquette. They may respond in a discussion or a short essay.
   
   
6. Extension Activity: Have students select a favorite recipe from home and find out which ingredients are native to the United States (or their region of the United States specifically). If the recipe contains products that the United States imports, have the students find out which countries they're imported from. After students share their findings with the class, discuss what the ingredients in a culture's food can say about its wealth.

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1. What is the largest country in Central America?
2. In which Central American country is English the official language?
3. Which country regained control of an important international waterway in 1999?
4. Colloquially, which country's inhabitants are called chapines?
5. What is the only Central American country that does not border the Caribbean Sea?

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Main Dish from Honduras
Plantain Pancakes

Ingredients:

3 very ripe plantains
3 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons melted butter
2/3 cup cooked beans
2/3 cup shortening or lard

Directions:

1. Boil and mash plantains; add flour and butter and mix thoroughly.

2. Fry the beans in one tablespoon shortening for about five minutes.

3. Heat remaining shortening in another frying pan. Add plantain mixture, one tablespoon at a time, and spread with a fork so that it will take the shape of a small pancake. Fry the pancakes for about five minutes.

4. Place one teaspoon of the fried beans on each pancake, and fold. Fry the stuffed pancakes, covered, three minutes on each side, or until brown.

Dessert from El Salvador
Quesadilla Salvadoreño

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
4 ounces parmesan cheese, grated
3 eggs
1 stick butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
Sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Mix butter and sugar until creamy. Add in eggs and beat one at a time.

2. In a separate bowl, sift flour and baking powder. Add to sugar mixture little by little. Add sour cream and Parmesan cheese, mixing well.

3. Grease baking dish with butter. Place mixture evenly on dish. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for 40 to 60 minutes.

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