Bread.
There are many kinds of bread. Toast with butter, croissants, bagels,
pancakes, waffles, rolls, French toast, English muffins, Italian bread,
raisin bread, danish bread...
Often, when I ask my students, “What did you have for breakfast?” they reply, “Bread.” When most Americans hear “bread,” they think of a slice of plain white bread. No butter, no jam. Not toasted. Just a piece of...bread. So, it’s better to be specific when asked. For example, “I had toast with strawberry jam,” or “I had a cream cheese danish.” No one really says, “I ate bread.”
Same with meat. We only say, “I ate meat,” if we cannot tell what kind of meat it was which we were eating. Which means, it was so strange looking and odd tasting, that we couldn’t figure out its origins. As in, “Gee, I don’t know if this is from a cow, pig, or chicken! I’ll have to call it ‘meat.’” (Unfortunately, public school lunches sometimes have “meat.”)
Compare it to fish. It would sound unnatural if we replied “Fish,” in Japanese when asked what we ate. We would say what kind of fish, or how it was cooked. Grilled fish, tuna, sashimi, etc. Not just “fish.”
Be more specific.
Often, when I ask my students, “What did you have for breakfast?” they reply, “Bread.” When most Americans hear “bread,” they think of a slice of plain white bread. No butter, no jam. Not toasted. Just a piece of...bread. So, it’s better to be specific when asked. For example, “I had toast with strawberry jam,” or “I had a cream cheese danish.” No one really says, “I ate bread.”
Same with meat. We only say, “I ate meat,” if we cannot tell what kind of meat it was which we were eating. Which means, it was so strange looking and odd tasting, that we couldn’t figure out its origins. As in, “Gee, I don’t know if this is from a cow, pig, or chicken! I’ll have to call it ‘meat.’” (Unfortunately, public school lunches sometimes have “meat.”)
Compare it to fish. It would sound unnatural if we replied “Fish,” in Japanese when asked what we ate. We would say what kind of fish, or how it was cooked. Grilled fish, tuna, sashimi, etc. Not just “fish.”
Be more specific.
No comments:
Post a Comment