Two other countries separated by a common language

[Doug Harris]

Two Americans separated by an oddly differing concept of
how a question should be answered:
   Said I to a Dollar Store clerk the other day:
   "Do you have any clothes line?"
   Her:
   "Yes, do you know where it is?"
   In the pause before she proceeded to tell me,
   I was tempted to say, "If I did, I'd have known
   that you _do_ have it."
(the other) doug
-------------
That reminds of a similar problem I had with a South African. He was
advertising for a job and said he'd rather not pay for someone to fly
there. Evidently he got a number of responses from the US, including me,
as Americans interpret that to mean that he might pay for travel there. BB

Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> Something like that. The question,
>
> "Can you use one of these?" ["Would you like to have one of these?"] in
American
>
> was re-interpreted as:
>
> "Do you have the ability to use of one of these?" in Australian.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 9/29/07, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
-----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Two other countries separated by a common language
>>
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---
>>
>> 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
>>
>> Wilson Gray wrote:
>>
>>> An American has a handful of wallet-sized, plastic calendars given
>>> away as a form of advertising by his bank.
>>>
>>> The American, proffering a calendar to an Australian friend, speaks:
>>>
>>> "Can you use one of these?"
>>>
>>> The Australian, after pondering the American's question and briefly
>>> examining the calendar, returns it and, answering the question with a
>>> question, replies:
>>>
>>> "You just look at it, don't you?"
>>>

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