Quote:
Originally Posted by Mountaindewed
@ Crazy Hitch when you say canteen is that the Australian name for an indoor cafeteria? I keep thinking of this round water bottle thing I used at camp when I hear the word canteen |
Yeah, there are some other words that don't match what we think they do in other cultures.
One of the more interesting ones for me is Hotel.
I've been to India a number of times, and I was always intrigued by the number of hotels all over the cities.
But these weren't regular hotels like we think of them. They were small buildings with one or two floors and run by the owner. I thought it was strange that they'd need such small hotels in a large city, but I went along with it and accepted it as part of the culture.
It was years later that i finally understood what a Hotel is
It's their word for Restaurant!
So, it makes sense now. The funny thing is my Indian friends continue to use Hotel in reference to a Restaurant, making things interesting when we travel together