Thanksgiving in the English Corner

By Rachel Tobin
Thanksgiving every year heralds in the “holiday season”, with Christmas, Hanukah, and New Years all in close succession. Naturally, it also heralds in a time of rushing and stress, too, with last minute attempts to get everything just right and on time. Thanksgiving in Taiwan was no different, if not even more complicated in its food orchestrations. Some foods we planned on serving weren’t available for love or money in Taiwan, and others had close substitutes that worked, in theory, but on which a conclusion in the matter would not be reached until it was too late to do over.

Thanksgiving Speech

By Mark Bradt

First of all I want to thank you all for coming to the English Corner’s thanksgiving party. My name is Mark, and I am a tutor here at the corner. I am incredibly excited to be sharing this part of American culture with everyone here today. To start off, I would like to give you a little Thanksgiving history to better understand the relationship this holiday has with our culture. While Christmas and Easter are celebrated throughout western culture, Thanksgiving is solely an American holiday. The first Thanksgiving took place in 1621 Virginia by Pilgrims who were celebrating the harvest and giving thanks to their Christian God. Since then it has become a secular national holiday of giving thanks for what we all have and share. Families get together for a large dinner that consists of just as many recipes as America has families. Most often, large quantities of Turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing are eaten by all, before passing out in front of whatever football game happens to be on.