Book Idea #1

It is my dream to one day be a published author, and in order to move forward on that journey, I need to start developing my ideas and putting them out there. Sharing this book idea makes me feel incredibly vulnerable because there's no criticism about it where it resides in my head. Yet, it will never become a real thing if it stays there.

This idea came to me from the amazing English classes I would teach as an adult educator in my previous position. I had students eager to share their culture via food, as it is one of the easier ways to share and experience cultural knowledge. Many days after class finished, students would bring out whatever dish they made and describe its importance in their lives. These spreads included South Indian, Chinese, South Korean, Sudanese, Colombian, and Brazilian dishes.

Below are my initial thoughts on the title and content, though now I think I should choose a different title given the popularity of another book with a similar title. I thought of this title before Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus was published, but now I think a change may be useful.

Title:

Lessons in English Class

Premise:

A collection of recipes and their cultural or personal importance from my English language learners in my English class.

I did start working on this book, and I would like to share an excerpt from my student, who wrote this herself (with guidance from me). There are certainly grammatical corrections needed, but I was very proud of her writing and didn't want to change it. You may be able to tell she just learned how to create more diverse sentence structures, namely the introductory phrase.

Excerpt written by my student from South India:

I don't know if this book idea will go anywhere, especially now that I am not teaching English language learners anymore. Perhaps this post will be seen by someone who could help bring it to life! My dream for this book would be to give voices to the amazing home chefs in our communities who want to share their culture in the most approachable way, as well as provide English learning opportunities to those chefs but also maybe others who found the book and thought to use it for the same purpose.