Teach English in Changshoulu Jiedao - Shanghai Shi

The Peculiarities of the english languageMy introduction to the oddities of the english language came quite early. Born in the usa to American parents, I moved to Kenya when I was 14 months old. From then until the age of 18, I was surrounded and educated by people of many different nationalities. My english teachers included a South African and a Canadian. Other teachers and classmates included British, Norwegian, australian, Ethiopian, Tanzanian, Kenyan and American. When I moved back to the US after high school, the english I was exposed to seemed in many ways to be a foreign language. I found the southern accent difficult to understand, and some of the expressions completely flummoxed me! Imagine my surprise when a 70 year old lady who may have weighed all of 80 pounds told me she was going to ?carry me to the store!? ? which I eventually realized meant she was going to take me to the store (she drove). It amused me when I learned that another well-known southern expression, ?Bless your heart,? was frequently used to mean, ?You are an idiot!? With that background, I had a great deal of sympathy for a coworker, an immigrant from vietnam, who had his own unique take on the english language. Among his favorite sayings, ?You American so funny! Egg roll ? no egg; root beer ? no beer; hot dog ? no dog.? So, Tham, for you: Is there Egg in Egg Roll? In American restaurants, the only egg in an egg roll is either in the dough ? the recipe does include an egg ? or brushed on the roll before it is fried. But apparently in other countries, including possibly Vietnam, the name may refer to a fried egg rolled in a dough, or something similar to our egg roll may be served along with eggs. On the other hand, egg rolls in Vietnam may not be all that different from American egg rolls. ?a typical vietnamese eggroll is made with chopped vegetables, bean threads or sprouts, meat ? usually crab, pork or shrimp, rice based dough (rice-paper) then dipped in a batter and deep fried. So I wonder why you think American egg rolls are ?funny?? What?s the Beer in Root Beer? Root beer actually did have its beginning in beer. The early root beers were similar to a beer product known as ?small beer,? which typically had about 2% alcohol. The drink we know as root beer began with the early colonialists, who ?didn?t have crops of barley or other grains to use when making their small beer, so they had to use other sweeteners such as honey, molasses, and cane sugar. And they didn?t have hops for bitterness, so they had to discover which plants in the new world would provide bitterness and flavor. That is the real beginning of root beer! Who put the ?Dog? in a Hot Dog? Why is a hot dog called a hot dog? As far back as the mid-1800s, sausage makers were accused of using dog meat to make sausages, so the name ?dog? has been used as a synonym for a sausage since about that time. The name ?hot dog,? though, is a little less certain. Some say the term was first used in a cartoon by Thomas Aloysius (Tad) Dorgan in around 1900. But a copy of that cartoon has never been found. The term did appear in an article by Barry Popik in the Knoxville Journal for September 28, 1893. It was so cool last night that the appearance of overcoats was common, and stoves and grates were again brought into comfortable use. Even the weinerwurst men began preparing to get the ?hot dogs? ready for sale Saturday night. So the name has been around for a very long time. Still, hot dogs, also called frankfurters or weiners, usually are made of pork or beef (or sometimes chicken or turkey), flavorings, such as salt, paprika and garlic, and preservatives. But no dog meat. Another of your favorite sayings is ?Hamburger ? no ham.? But I think you should research that one yourself, and let me know what you find out! Thanks, Tham, for giving me your perspective on english.