A rose by another name…

There is a phrase in English Language “ A rose by another name”, which means describing the same thing by a different name or in a different way.
But when you land up in US, a rose by another name could well be a … Cauliflower.

The language spoken in US is called American. The misinformed mistake it to be English. While they can be forgiven, for this language uses the English alphabets, and the spelling and pronunciation is also similar to English, the difference in meanings can be enormous

Something most innocently said could be misconstrued enough to spoil one’s name :-)
One has to be careful about even one’s gestures.
Add with it the variety of accents and you can be sure of facing some embarrassing time.

The first time a friend innocently told an American that she was living with another girl … she got a really weird stare, until her room mate hastened to add that they were actually sharing a two bedroom apartment.

When I accidentally kicked my friend when waiting in a queue, I at once touched her hand and apologized… she squirmed and explained to me that while this is the way we apologize in India, I better not touch any girls here. And since then I have noticed that people rarely touch each other, unless they are of the opposite sex. Sigh!!! Gutter-mind. What can I say? :-D

The first day in office I went for lunch and there was this very foreign (to me) looking guy with a chef hat behind the counter and I pointed out the veggie looking stuff on display to him. He made some garbled noises in a guttural voice. I gave him a blank look and stood there wondering if he were talking to me in Russian or Spanish, and thinking he probably did not understand what I was asking I pointed the food again. He made the same noises again and looked at me like I was an alien creature. I gave a helpless look and asked him if he could speak slowly as I could not follow him… so he slowly and patiently asked again… ‘Dogoordoeadere’…. (To go or to eat here). *phew* it took me three tries to understand English ne..American that the chef was speaking all along

Throw in a potpourri of Indian, Spanish, African, European, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Middle Eastern languages and accents and speaking becomes a regular adventure.