Two other countries separated by a common language

[Lynne Murphy]

If anyone's interested in more stories of international toilet
misunderstandings, I covered the toilet/bathroom/restroom/WC (etc.) issue
on Separated by a Common Language:

<http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2007/03/toilet.html>

Lynne

--On Sunday, September 30, 2007 8:10 pm -0400 Laurence Horn
<laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:

> 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:
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the
>>> mail header -----------------------
>>>  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
>>>  >>
>>>
>>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> 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
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



Dr M Lynne Murphy
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language
Arts B135
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QN

phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org