Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Hamburger vs. Beefburger

Have you ever tried to explain to anyone that a Hamburger doesn't really have ham in it? Yesterday in class I tried to explain to my Egyptian (Muslim practicing) student who speaks VERY LITTLE ENGLISH that a Hamburger is ok for him to eat. He kept saying, "I don't eat pork, I eat Beefburgers. I was trying (VERY UNSUCCESSFULLY) to help him understand that he needed to order a "Hamburger" when he went to restaurants here, and that they only one he would not want would be a "BACON Cheeseburger". This whole conversation involved a lot of drawing on the board and elaborate gestures, much to the amusement of my Hispanic students. (Just imagine your own drawings of cow, pig, buns, bacon, Germany, sesame seeds, the great wall of China, etc.)

Can someone tell me if in Great Britain Hamburgers are called Beefburgers? Because... I was recounting the whole comical ordeal to my mom on the phone last night and she told me that in Belize she ordered a hamburger, and was promptly served a bun with ham on it. Go figure!

3 comments:

DanaLee said...

Just to add to the confusion next week you should have a lesson on driveway v/s a parkway! Ha. Your James is adorable.

The only one who writes anything said...

Danal, do you want me to have an aneurysm or however you spell that? You need to come here and show them all how to use a computer and press 'escape'. Then they can all draw pictures of your...dimples. HA HA HA. I didn't know you had a blog!!!! Now I will have to stalk you there!

Anonymous said...

Just tell them that a beefburger was called a Hamburger because it came from the city of Hamburg in Germany it was a German classic dish until the Americans decided to call it a beefburger, but yes we call it a beefburger too in the UK