RESTAURANT

A Waldsee Tradition is to organize a "Restaurant Abend" on the Saturday midsession of a two-week session. This requires the villagers to make a reservation and choose food from a menu.

With a beginning group practice making reservations and then role play the dialogue with you as the restaurant host/ess. When they are comfortable with making reservations, switch to a discussion of what happens at a German restaurant. Bring a copy of a menu to yourFamiliengespräch. Talk about the different foods, the concept of a Menü, different customs (in most countries people do not place their hands on their lap while at the table as is customary in the US, for example). Then role play ordering and receiving food, asking for the bill, and paying with you as the waitron. For added fun serve each villager a Gummibärchen or piece of Schokolade!

For a more advanced group make your role play a bit more complicated and creative. Give each villager a slip of paper with a specific role on it—they shouldn’t know the roles of the other actors. One could be a waitron who is very hard of hearing, another a customer has to make her plane in less than a half hour, but is starving; two could be poor students who try to slip out without paying, etc…