Two other countries separated by a common language

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:19 PM -0400 9/30/07, Wilson Gray wrote:
>At a party in Amsterdam, I once asked my host where the bathroom was.
>He graciously pointed it out to me. (We'd all been drinking quite a
>bit, so the alcohol probably prevented him from noticing any strange
>about such a request in the middle of a party.) I went there and, sure
>enough, I found myself in the bathroom. However, my intention was to
>take not a bath, but a leak. The second request got through my host's
>alcoholic haze and he realized that what I mean was the
>borrowed-from-BrE W[ater]C[loset], pronounced approximately "way say"
>in Dutch of the "Seventies.
>
>-Wilson

An anecdote along the same lines:
During my first week in Paris on my junior year
abroad in '63, with my many years of grade
school, high school, and college French under my
belt, I found myself in a subway station with the
compelling need to inquire of someone "Où est la
salle de bains?"  This was met with incredulous
derision:  "Une salle de bains dans le métro?!?"
Finally someone took pity on me and pointed out
the relevant door with "W.C." on it.  I
eventually learned that I should have asked for
"la toilette", although [dubl at vese] would have
done the job as well.

LH

>
>On 9/30/07, Doug Harris <cats22 at frontiernet.net> wrote:
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>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Doug Harris <cats22 at FRONTIERNET.NET>
>>  Subject:      Re: Two other countries separated by a common language
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  As well they might (ask that question). As, similarly,
>>  they are inclined to ask for "bathrooms" when having
>>  no intention whatsoever of bathing, being befuddled by
>>  getting French fries as part of their fish and chips
>>  order, and pondering where locals are going when they
>>  announce, as some sometimes do, they're going to the
>>  _loo_. (Less frequently, these days, or so I'd imagine,
>>  the loo-bound might note s/he is going "to spend a
>>  penny", a once-common phrase reflecting a long-gone day
>>  when that was the price of admission to a "public
>>  convenience".
>>  (the other) doug
>>
>>  ---
>>
>>  LOL. Doug Harris said something to a similar effect. I was of course
>>  simply inventing a sentence that I thought a tourist might ask. BB
>>
>>  Paul Johnston wrote:
>>  > Assuming they'd know what a subway station is.  A subway is an
>>  > underpass over a road, though "Tube/Underground station" would be fine.
>>  > As someone who did use to ask questions like that, I usually got my
>>  > questions answered as i would here, but sometimes preceded by a
>>  > repetition.  "The Tube Station?  Oh, you'll have to go down
>>  > Rellingford Road to get there."
>>  >
>>  > Paul Johnston
>>  > On Sep 29, 2007, at 3:04 AM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>>  >
>>  >>
>>  >> I have heard that in England questions such as "Do you know where the
>>  >> subway station is?" are considered yes/no. Is this the same issue? BB
>>  >>
>>
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>
>
>--
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-----
>                                               -Sam'l Clemens
>
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