Values

Friendship Solidarity Culture Gratitude Confidence Cooperation Understanding Communication

Summary

Who's the Boss? (Chapter #104)

In this episode Victor Brashov is eager to have his cafe reviewed by the city dining magazine. Jamal unexpectedly meets two friends from home and is ashamed of being laid-off as an engineer and that he is only a handyman at the restaurant. He tells his friends that he owns Crossroads Cafe. Local patron, Jess, is having difficulty with his hearing. "Culture Clips" looks at two men who have had to change careers. One man has gone from being an engineer into teaching college. The other man, once a college professor, is now delivering pizzas until he finds something else. "Word Play" gives examples of how to apologize.

Dramedy analysis

Crossroads Coffee

Student: Elizabeth Miranda Juarez

Professor: Bluidson Cardenas Ledesma

Course/Cycle: English Intermediate II

Institute: Carlos Noriega

2014

Introduction

Crossroads Café is a "dramedy" - both drama and comedy -26 compelling episodes centered around six likable characters and a neighborhood café. Crossroads Café is a warm, friendly spot in the city where many paths cross. It's a familiar kind of place where people similar to many ESL learners experience the humor and pathos of everyday life, meet challenges, face obstacles, aspire, achieve...and continually learn about themselves and others as their lives intersect.

Two Video Sidebars enrich each episode: Culture Clips, a documentary-style segment focusing on the story's cultural issues...and Word Play, a colorful animated segment that demonstrates appropriate language for communicating specific types of

Characteres

David Ackert as Jamal Al Jabali

Cynthia Burr as Katherine Blake

Alan Charof  as Victor Brashov

Gabriella De Marco as Rosa

Walter Kim as Henry

David Kirkwood as Jess Washington

Appearing in the breaks of the Narrator David Gilfillan series - "Culture Clips" segment and

Doug Stone

Thinking about this sequence

For me, this series is a colorful and innovative material that provides detailed exercises in reading, writing and conversation. Also each half-hour episode is divided into two parts: Culture Clips (Cultural Segment), a documentary-style segment focused on cultural themes shown in the story (like changing roles in marriage); and Word Play (Word Game), An animated segment that focuses on language functions, how to use appropriate language when a specific type of information is communicated.

Crossroads Café is appropriate for teaching English as a second language (ESL) literacy in young adults and the basic (pre-GED) skills, workplace, educational and correctional programs.