Among the Eaters who made the trip to our Berlin meetup were Jennifer and Guntram from Dresden. Jennifer, as it turns out, teaches advanced English to German students who work in food and hospitality (including a cheese engineer - excellent job title). I thought she was joking when she told me she uses Sporkful episodes in her classes, but she was serious and wrote later with more details:
I use The Sporkful first of all for culinary vocabulary, secondly to get discussions going about whatever you guys are debating. It's also good for intercultural training sometimes, for example the whole concept of ice, which does not enjoy the same status in Germany as in the States, as I'm sure you've noticed. The students think you guys are funny; sometimes I have to clarify Sporkful neologisms.
"Sporkful neologisms" is the most generous possible description for the ridiculous words we make up in the course of our episodes. I would love to be in the classroom when Jennifer summons all the wisdom of her doctorate to explain what "overcheesification" means.
Jennifer says many of her students are now away interning in global hotels, from London to Vienna to Spain to Costa Rica. May they spread Sporkful teachings far and wide! /mark
