The Socialization of Taste

Margaret A. DuFon

English Department, CSU-Chico

This presentation focuses on the socialization of taste by American and Japanese study abroad students in Indonesia and explores the role of dinner table discourse in shaping their ways of thinking and talking about food. Using language socialization theory, this investigation builds on the pioneering work of Ochs, Pontecorvo, and Fasulo (1996), who compared how parents in two cultures socialized their children into the world of food. They found that whereas American culture emphasized food as nutrition, material good and reward, Italian culture emphasized food as pleasure. Because these cross-cultural differences exist, it follows that sojourners in another culture will need to learn new ways of thinking and talking about food if they are to be successful in social interaction, particularly in situations involving the eating of and talking about food. This presentation discusses an analysis based on 17 dinner table conversations containing NS-NS and NS-NNS discourse in Indonesian as well as data from learner journals in which they discuss their changing attitudes toward food during their sojourn in Indonesia. It was found that the Indonesians’ discourse with their foreign guests emphasized the identification of food, food as pleasure, food as an ethnic identity marker and food as gifts (but not as reward). The themes of food as material good and food and health were also present but less prominent. As a result of the emphasis on food as pleasure in the socialization process, at least some of the learners developed a greater respect and appreciation for food as well as new ways of talking about it.