08 March, 2016

Bath tissue

This was on the wall in my toilet cubicle at Costco this morning. In the company of north Americans I've grown accustomed to calling the "toilet" a "bathroom" even when there is no bathroom. Sometimes I'll use restroom, because bathroom just seems too weird.

But this is pushing it too far. All I can see when I read "bath tissue" is a bunch of tissues floating in bath water. Eeew!

Language is funny, because when words are a part of your regular vocabulary you don't even think about the literal meaning or an alternative literal meaning. For example "car park" sounds strange to American ears. To us it is merely a place that you park your car. But they think about parks and how weird it is to have a park full of cars!

What other phrases do you use that makes sense in your culture, but not to people from other cultures?

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