[ti:Writing Feedback: What Is Your National Dish?]
[al:Everyday Grammar]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2024-04-05]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]In today's Everyday Grammar, we will take a delicious trip to East Asia. 
[00:07.23]We will taste wonderful and perhaps unfamiliar foods - if only in our imagination.
[00:14.59]We will also learn about some of the details of writing, including common spelling and punctuation mistakes.
[00:24.58]In a recent Everyday Grammar, we explored how to talk about a national dish.
[00:31.05]We asked our listeners and readers around the world to write to us about their national dish.
[00:38.22]In today's lesson, we give feedback on some of that writing.
[00:43.83]Let's start with Japan.
[00:46.47]Here is part of what Kaori wrote:
[00:50.23]Chirashi-sushi is the national dish of Japan.
[00:54.97]It is a sweet and sour dish that consists of rice, shrimp, eggs, dried gourd, vinegar, salt and sugar...
[01:08.96]In May 5th, we eat the traditional sweet called Kashiwa-mochi. 
[01:15.66]It is a sweet and sticky small snack that consists of rice powder, small red beans and sugar.
[01:28.18]Kaori used the structures that we discussed in our previous lesson. 
[01:33.61]The writing included adjectives such as sweet and sour, the phrasal verb "consist of," and nouns such as rice, shrimp, and eggs. 
[01:45.48]We were especially interested to read about dried gourd - an ingredient that is not common in America.
[01:52.89]Our main suggestion is to replace the short word "in" with "on," as in "On May 5th, we eat the traditional sweet..."
[02:04.45]Remember: we use "on" for exact dates. So, we say, for example, "On January 1st," or "On September 27th."
[02:17.56]Next, we go to China to learn about two popular dishes.
[02:23.07]Here, we notice a similarity between the United States and China. 
[02:28.39]If you asked Americans to write about a national dish, you would likely get different answers.
[02:35.53]In the same way, we received different answers about a national dish of China.
[02:42.93]Here is part of Jon's message:
[02:46.00]Chicken soup is a national dish of China, it's a light soup that consists of hens and medicine plants.
[02:58.65]Most part of chicken soup is hens' meat, because it tastes finer...the other ingredients of it are Chinese medicine plants such as DangGui.
[03:13.99]Of course we need some flavorings to make it tastes more delicious, soybeans, peppers, ginger and garlic are necessary to the soup.
[03:27.39]Jon's message is clear and easy to understand. That said, we have a few suggested changes.
[03:35.85]In terms of grammar, we should remove the noun form "medicine" and instead use the adjective "medicinal," as in "medicinal plants." 
[03:47.67]We could also use a more exact noun such as "herb," as in "medicinal herbs."
[03:55.21]We should also replace the short word "to" with "for," as in "necessary for the soup."
[04:03.56]We could also make a few small stylistic changes.
[04:08.34]For example, in the first sentence, we could use the noun "chicken" in place of "hen" although a hen makes it clear that the bird is a female.
[04:19.48]Here is one way we might update the message:
[04:24.24]Chicken soup is a national dish of China. 
[04:28.92]It is a light soup that consists of chicken and medicinal herbs.
[04:34.51]Most of the chicken soup has meat from the female chicken, or hen, because it tastes finer and softer than meat from the male chicken.
[04:47.23]The other ingredients of chicken soup are Chinese medicinal herbs such as dang gui.
[04:54.95]Of course, we need some flavorings to make it taste more delicious.
[04:59.94]Soybean, peppers, ginger and garlic are necessary for the soup.
[05:07.37]Next, here is part of what Ming wrote to us:
[05:12.01]Meicai Kourou is the national dish of China.
[05:16.20]It is a salty dish that consists of pork belly, fermented red tofu source, dry mizuna, soybean source, salt and species, such as Sichuan Peppercorn and star anise. 
[05:34.77]Mei Cai is the mizuna's pronunciation in Chinese....
[05:40.34]Ming wrote a nice message that is clear and easy to understand.
[05:46.37]We suggest a few changes for some of the nouns. 
[05:50.75]Instead of "source," we want to use the word "sauce." 
[05:55.83]And instead of "species," we would use "spices."
[06:00.91]So, the second sentence might say: "fermented red tofu sauce," "soybean sauce," and "salt and spices."
[06:10.63]The final sentences might go like this:
[06:15.12]It is a salty dish that consists of pork belly, fermented red tofu sauce, dry mizuna, soybean sauce, salt, and spices, such as Sichuan peppercorn and star anise.
[06:33.70]Mei cai is the Chinese pronunciation for mizuna.
[06:39.26]We can take a few lessons from the messages that we received.
[06:44.19]The first is that writing does not need to be perfect to be understandable.
[06:50.77]All the messages had nice, clear structures and were easy to understand for a native English speaker.
[06:58.38]The main issues were in the details - the spelling of nouns and adjectives, punctuation, and other small things. 
[07:07.65]Our recommendation is to carefully look over these details several times in future writing efforts.
[07:16.23]We will give more writing feedback on messages from our fans around the world in coming lessons. 
[07:24.01]We will learn more about national dishes from other areas of the world including Europe and Africa.
[07:32.32]If you have a question or comment about today's lesson, feel free to send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com
[07:44.19]I'm John Russell.