Writing homework at university: The Food Culture Difference between Britain and Vietnam

Food culture differences between uk and vietnam

Compare one aspect/part of British culture with the same one from your own culture. Give your opinion on both.

Through from the traditional eastern to the modern western world, it always exists numberless differences and a little in common across countries such as the culture, politics, people's personality... One of them is the food culture of Britain and Vietnam. In my opinion, there are two visible differences, namely the favourite food and eating utensil; and an example for the similarity is enjoying tea.

The first difference is favourite foods eaten in repasts of the British and Vietnamese. In most of Vietnamese meals, from breakfasts to dinners, rice or products made from rice are the main foods and always appear among them. The reason for it, Vietnam is age-old agricultural country, so rice is an indispensable part of meals as well as Vietnamese life. Moreover, the main meals have to have a vegetable soup bowl, together with a fried or braised meat dish providing the necessary protein and fiber for the purpose of balancing nutrients. On the other hand, there are only a number of foods containing starches in British meals because the rates of obesity of Britain is the most in Europe and has been ever-increasing in recent days. They often have breakfast with toast, jam, cereal with milk... in morning; and for several centuries, British main meals has often based around what commonly called "meat and two veg" to control their weight and health. In brief, there are many food differences between Britain and Vietnam.

The second difference is the tool to eat. The Vietnamese prefer to use chopsticks in most dishes, from liquid dishes to solid dishes. While they are eating and want to show politeness to others, they will reverse the points of the chopsticks to pick up food to others. Differently from Vietnamese, as an early age, British children are taught to use knives and forks properly; Therefore, most British dishes are served with knives and forks. When starting to eat, they often put their fork into the food and use a knife to cut it. When finishing the meal, they will place the knife and fork in the center of the plate, so the waiter knows the meal was over. In short, the Vietnamese and British have their own eating utensil.

A small similarity between the British and Vietnamese is how they enjoy tea. Both of countries have the drinking tea taste and it has shaped for many centuries. They all attach special importance to three things: the good tea, fancy cake, and comfortable space. When including enough three elements above, they have a perfect tea. Through how brewing tea and relishing in a cup of tea, the British and Vietnamese can judge the quality and makings of a person. In sum, enjoying tea is one of the rare resemblances between the British and Vietnamese.

In conclusion, there are numerous distinctions between Britain and Vietnam such as the preferred eats and eating tool. Beside that, there are also several similarities with a typical example is relishing in tea.

The instruction is for you to take one aspect of similarity between British and Vietnamese life, then compare the 2 in your discussion. So, this is supposed to be a 4 paragraph essay covering only 1 comparison point, not several as you presented in this essay. Why do you discuss only one comparison point in this essay? The instruction clearly states:

Compare one aspect/part of British culture with the same one from your own culture.

The key phrase for the instruction is "one aspect/ part", one, singular. You used several points in the discussion which means you did not understand the homework. In this case, you could have discussed how Vietnamese eat rice as a regular staple with each meal, while the Brits mostly have their meals with bread or potatoes with their meals. Discussing each extensively in individual paragraphs would have been more topic adherent and format compliant for your homework discussion. Or, you could have spoken of how the Vietnamese use chopsticks and the Brits often use a fork and knife for their basic meal set-up. One paragraph each again.

You over discussed in this essay due to your eagerness to comply with the discussion requirements. You did not bother to clarify the discussion instructions since you obviously misunderstood the meaning of "one aspect of British culture with the same from your own culture". So in this case, you used several aspects:

- Food
- cutlery
- Staple food
- Tea

You should have only used one of those topics for the discussion:
- Meals in relation to food
- Meals in relation to cutlery
- Meals in relation to staple food
- Meals in relation to beverage choice (tea)

Only one of those sub-aspects of the meal should have been discussed in the essay.