“I like to eat apples and bananas” culture and language acquisition
May 10, 2023
An American walking through the food market - Mercado Santa Clara in Quito, Ecuador for the first time may be amazed at how many different kinds of bananas there are. The history of bananas in the United States is actually quite interesting. In the United States, we eat only one variety of banana, the Cavendish. In Ecuador, there are more than 300 varieties of bananas and worldwide there are over one thousand different varieties of bananas. From the first steps of learning a language and idiomatic expressions about an economy, bananas control the world.
Like bananas, there are thousands of different ways to learn a language. Language acquisition is a different process for everyone. Which involves a wide range of cultural aspects that vary depending person to person. One enormous surface level factor to culture is food. Different foods have different meanings. One of the first language lessons someone learns in their first and all secondary languages is food. Starting with the American song “I like to eat apples and bananas” to learn your American English vowels.
One of my first culture shocks while traveling in Colombia after having studied Spanish my whole life, was over something as simple as basic fruit. When my friend’s abuela said “pasame el limón” and I handed her a lemon. A “lemon” is a yellow citrus fruit and a “lime” is green. However in Spanish, a “limón” is green and a “lima” is yellow. Luckily, we both laughed it off. Differences such as these can influence how people learn and interact with a language.
Bananas are one of the simplest foods to express the difference in language and culture in the United States and Latin America and my personal language acquisition journey while living in Quito. This humble fruit can teach us about the ways culture influences language learning and usage. The thing is "platano" means banana in some Spanish speaking countries, but not all. In many places "platano" means "plantain".
First, plantains are not bananas. Plantains are a different fruit altogether. This is important to understand not only because it would be unpleasant to bite into a raw plantain, but also for language acquisition from the perspective of learning Spanish as a foreign language.
By now, you can probably see my frustration with my beginner level Spanish textbooks used in my public school in the United States. Because contrary to what my textbook taught me, “lima” does not mean “lime” and “plátano” does not mean “banana”. My Spanish teacher was not versed enough in Spanish speaking cultures (and food) to know these small differences and thus, led me to these two culture shocks.
There is a popular term used in the States “banana republic” which we use to refer to a politically unstable country that is dependent on a single crop like bananas. This term comes from the book “Cabbages and Kings” by O. Henry. Henry creates a fictional dystopian Central American country that is corrupt, impoverished and controlled by bananas. Not dissimilar from real world situations in several Latin American countries where natural resources are exported and have great power in the government and over the people.
US suppliers grow one and only one variety of bananas, the Cavendish. In the book “Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World” Dan Koeppel explores the cultural, economic and environmental impact of bananas on the world. He points out that all of the bananas in the United States are a clone of one single Cavendish banana from Costa Rica that is resistant to the Panama disease. This is important because before the 1970’s the only variety of banana in the US was a Gros Michel banana that was wiped out by the Panama disease. This reminds us that learning a language is not only about learning vocabulary words and grammar points, but also understanding the historical and cultural background of the words that we use every day.
Ecuador is the leader of worldwide banana exportation. It supplies about thirty percent of the world’s bananas and that’s not even their biggest natural export. There are more than three hundred different kinds of bananas in Ecuador and plenty of different ways to eat them. There is one variety of banana called a Manzano banana, these bananas are very tart which makes them even better when cooked. But my personal favorite is a popular street snack called a “choco banana”. A delicious frozen chocolate covered banana on a stick. Exploring all the different foods when you travel is a key to adventure, opportunity and opening up to different cultures.
The Cavendish banana is a reminder to try to also learn the importance of understanding the larger context of the language we are learning. Which is how I know that I am teaching language and culture hand in hand. Language and culture are so deeply intertwined that it would be impossible to separate the two. Bananas carry cultural significance around the world. Without understanding the history of bananas, you can't understand the vocabulary, idioms, or societal expressions and references.
Update:
In an informal survey completed by my students at a public school in Connecticut, all of whose first language is not English, here are some more ways to say "banana" in Spanish: cambur (Venezuela), guineo (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Ecuador), mínimo (Honduras), banano (Honduras, Guatemala), orito (Ecuador), and gualele (Bolivia).
I was really intrigued by the word "mínimo" to say banana because I had never heard that before. One of my students from Honduras explained that people on the coast will say "guineo" and people in the city will say "mínimo". This was not dissimilar to my experience in Ecuador, where people on the coast use the word "guineo". However, I knew that there had to be more meaning behind this colloquialism. Turns out, if the banana is not good enough to be exported based on size it is called mínimo, which is where the term "mínimo" referring to bananas derived from.
Bibliography:
Arrangements, E. (2023a, March 31). 10 different types of bananas. Edible® Blog. https://www.ediblearrangements.com/blog/different-types-of-bananas/
¿Banano o MÍNIMO?. Diario La Tribuna. (2016). https://archivos.latribuna.hn/2016/06/18/banano-o-minimo/
Food Republic. (2013a, August 15). What’s the difference between bananas and plantains? Food Republic. https://www.foodrepublic.com/2013/08/15/whats-the-difference-between-bananas-and-plantains/
Henry, O. (2021). Cabbages and Kings. Mint Editions.
Koeppel, D. (2009). Banana: The fate of the fruit that changed the world. Plume.
Throughline. (2020, January 9). There will be bananas. NPR. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/794302086
Wikimedia Foundation. (2023a, March 18). Apples and bananas. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apples_and_Bananas
You Bug Me. Now Science Explains Why. (2011, July 22). Yes, we do have bananas, for now. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2011/07/22/138610585/yes-we-do-have-bananas-for-now
YouTube. (2016, November 29). An interview with Claire Kramsch. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI6YwSOASQE
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