WE should encourage foreigners to learn some Chinese. I suggest besides an English translation of each dish, next to the names of really popular Chinese dishes, we give the name in pinyin. So if they really like 宫保鸡丁, next time they go into a Chinese restaurant they can say "gongbao jiding!"
Most foreigners have already learned some Chinese words for food and drink. Many Americans say "Tofu" for 豆腐. In recent times, many Chinese words have entered the English language, like "chop suey"（杂碎） or "chow mien"（炒面）. We might not recognize them because they are not spelt in pinyin, or because they come from southern Chinese dialect.
Did you know that the English word "Tea" is from 茶? The reason they do not say "cha" is because they took the word from Fujian, where it is pronounced "tei". Many can even name different teas, like Oolong (乌龙) or Kemun (祁门).
Every English speaker should know the word Ketchup（番茄酱）. Most do not know that it comes from Chinese. Even many Chinese do not know that it comes from Chinese. Ketchup (also spelt catsup) is from 茄汁, which is pronounced "ket-sup" in Cantonese（广东话）. These words entered the English language a long time ago. It is now time for foreigners to learn a few more Chinese words, especially for food! Only now they can learn it from putonghua Chinese, spelt in pinyin.
