Travellers based in the US deserve to know about a few things that the rest of the world (<b>ROTW</b, or the rest of the English-speaking world (<b>ROTESW</b, does differently.

Knowing about these items can help in avoiding costly misunderstandings, like booking for wrong dates (a big ouch! if such booking is non-refundable), or they can help to avoid embarrassement.

So, since this website is based in the US and most if not all of these apply when travelling in Europe (and elsewhere of course), let me throw out a few that I have come across time and time again as having the potential for trouble big or small.

US <i>weekly calendar</i> starts with Sunday (why?) - ROTW starts with Monday.
Don’t just give a calendar a quick glance, read the letters that spell the days above the columns, the third from the left could be a Tuesday or a Wednesday...

US <i>dates</i> MM/DD/YYYY - ROTW DD/MM/YYYY.
US-based travellers better spell out or at least abbreviate the month, 3/10 is to them March 10th, to the rest of the world it is 3rd of October...

US <i>daytime</i> 12-hour AM and PM format, spoken or written - ROTW 24-hour format (written, and spoken when formal), and 12-hour format (informally spoken, the context usually makes it obvious, if needed “evening” or “morning” etc. is added)

US <i>fuel consumption</i> MPG - ROTW liters per 100km. And - to make this even trickier:

US <i>gallon</i> roughly 3.8 liters - ROTW (where they still might have gallons) that gallon would be about 4.5 liters

US <i>cell phones</i> (called mobiles elsewhere) get charged for both outgoing and incoming calls - ROTW mostly only for calls you make, not those you receive

US <i>roundtrip</i> (as opposed to one-way) means going there and coming back - ROTW a roundtrip (as in German Rundreise) involves at least three points, while a go-there-and-back is a Return trip or (in Switzerland) Retour trip or (in Germany) Hin- und Rückfahrt or in French: “aller et retour”

US the <i>menu word “Entrée</i>" means a main course (why? you don’t “enter” a meal with a main course but with soup or an appetizer...) - ROTW an Entrée is an appetizer.
So be careful when you use the word, or you'll be eating nothing but appetizers...

US the word <i>torch</i> involves an open flame - ROTESW it means an el. flashlight

US the word <i>bum</i> means either a worthless person or the act of borrowing - ROTESW it means behind/posterior/backside (as in “a successful show puts bums on seats”)

US <i>butt</i> is an alternate word for behind/posterior/backside (or the target of a joke) - ROTESW it’s the remainder of a smoked cigarette (or also the target of a joke)

And here’s <b>the worst offender</b> that can evoke all kinds of reactions, kind or unkind, all probably best avoided:

US the word <i>“fanny”</i> as in <i>“fannypack”</i> means behind/posterior/backside - ROTESW the word means the most private and intimate female body part, so do not use the term fannypack (note that manufacturers have long stopped calling them by that name - guess why?)

Now don't get me started on inches and feet and ounces (which kind?) and Fahrenheit and the rest of it...

It must be tough to live on an island... ;-)

Excellent post, but in the U.S. we also use butt to refer to the remains of a cigarette.

Very dangerous, this. For example

"ROTW a roundtrip (as in German Rundreise) involves at least three points"
Germany is not the rest of the world. In English-speaking countries, rountrip is understood as the American for return.

"ROTW liters per 100km"
What's a "liter"?
Anyway, it's miles per gallon. Men's gallons, of course, not the girlie ones Americans use


"ROTW an Entrée is an appetizer." Not according to most French textbooks it's not. The Repertoire de la Cuisine uses "entree" to mean main course. The recent French fad for calling starters entrees is unhistorical, and limited to France. The English for first course is "starter".

"ROTW DD/MM/YYYY" Middle and southern Europe, yes. In many other countries (incl parts of Scandinavia) it's YYYY (or YY)/MM/DD

and on

Achtung! Thanks Dolly!

Every tourist should learn these nuances

And of course a fag in Britain means something other than American use. Or a boot sale may or may not have boots on sale. Language nuances have always fascinated me - like your explaining of round trip meaning quite different in German.

As does Have a Gute Fahrt! Good journey or trip I think but not sure but love to say it!

I enjoy a Gute Fahrt as well.

One of the main points of travel is to experience and appreciate how people do things differently in other parts of the world. If the US were exactly like the ROTW, why would I want to leave? Please travel to the US to experience all of our oddities! We drive on parkways and park on driveways, go figure.

I love the Brits use of French terms like Bureau de Change even with their well known antipathy to the French (and v.v.) - in France it is just "Change" - which could be an English word

and on trains in Britain they always make those insipid announcements 'as always using small change in the buffet ('buffy') car and on French trains they call the buffet car the "Snackbar" - figure that one out!

Then there are the food word differences - my daughters are adventurous eaters, but they kept asking me things like "what is an aubergene, swede, marrow",etc. We need to publich a menu master for England!

Interesting thread.

Sometimes it's the most simple things that do your head in. Like having to ask for HOT tea in the USA. It doesn't come any other way in most countries.

Kay

Well, I'd say thanks but even living on the "island" I actually was aware of all these (including fanny). Many of us do pay attention to the world around us and do learn from our travels and other experiences with ROTW/ROTESW.

Precisely - why do the English use french names for italian vegetables - aubergine instead of eggplant and courgette for squash? I have yet to figure out what a vegetable marrow actually is.

And you forgot to mention the difference in counting floors - in the US we naturally start with 1 - why does the rest of the world call the first floor you enter anything but 1?

And people in most places don;t eat properly - they don;t even know enough to switch the fork from the left (holding down) hand to the right (picking up) hand. (For a long time in the US this lack of switching was considered declasse - since only immigrants did it - and it seemed to indicate a rush to eat perhaps due to a lack of sufficient food. In many places is it now more acceptable as a european variation.)

The answer is you can do this forever. so there are minor differences - big deal. One travels for the differences - otherwise you could stay in your backyard.

Whoa. I need a little clarification re "fannypack". If "fanny" means "butt" in USA and "butt" is cigarette can I got into a place and ask for a "buttpack" or a "pack of fannies" or "whatever".
"?" I won't even start on "fag".

What about paying the bill in a restaurant. In Spain, and latin American countries, you can sit at the table as long as you want. No one will bother you. You have to ask for the bill. "La cuenta, por favor."

In US, they bring you the bill as soon as you slurp up the last scrap on your plate. I was sitting next to a French lady at a restaurant in SF recently, and she became quite indignant when that happened. Perhaps as I might get a little annoyed that they don't bring me the bill soon enough when I'm out of the country. (C'mon, c'mon, I got another church to go see.) It is this (quite civilized, IMO) custom that sometimes gets a restaurant a rep for slow service from US visiters.

I tried to explain to the lady that the waiter did not want her to leave. He was not pressuring her to go. In the US, I tried to explain, we ASSUME the customer is in a hurry, and that we are doing them a favor by getting them the bill as quickly as possible, so they can get on their way. My uncle, a restauranteur, always told me, "The customer might not complain about waiting for his food, but never make him wait to pay."

She seemed a bit calmer, but she didn't like it.

Viva la difference!

Yes, when it is raining the British put on their rubbers so they can venture out and enjoy a fag.

"US the word “fanny” as in “fannypack” means behind/posterior/backside - ROTESW the word means the most private and intimate female body part, so do not use the term fannypack (note that manufacturers have long stopped calling them by that name - guess why?)"

And if that happens to be the name of your SO, agree on a different name to use in public places to avoid being detained for public lewdness. Fiona is good.

Another note --

The US military uses the 24-hour clock and dd/mm/yyyy; many folks who spend decades doing this just continue.

s

Sometimes a contribution is not received in the spirit in which it was delivered.

flanneruk just can't help it, bristling with bickering while seeing danger in funny places ("...<i>Very dangerous, this...</i>"). Dangerous? Raised your anxiety level to orange? Sorry I scared you...

"...<i>What's a liter...</i>"? If flanneruk had stopped to pay attention while reading, (“engage brain before typing”) s/he (?) might have noticed that I made a point of addressing the US-based travellers (How do you know? Maybe because it says so <i>in my post header</i>?), and in the US it is spelled liter.

Further pearls of wisdom from said bristling flanneruk: "...<i>Germany is not the rest of the world...</i>" Really? Who said it was? But thanks anyway.

About the Entrée: Quoting from www.cuisine-france.com/recette/recette.htm (my bolding):

Recettes de cuisine
- <b>Entrée</b>, hors d'oeuvre, soupe
- Viande: boeuf, veau, volaille
- Poisson, fruit de mer et crustacé
- Dessert, gateau, tarte et crème
- Sauce
- Autres recettes

When you click on Entrée you get

Entrée - Hors d'oeuvre, soupe, tarte et quiche...
Cuisses de grenouille
Oeufs brouillés
Oeufs pochés
Quiche Lorraine
Soupe à l'oignon
Soupe de cerise
Soupe de cresson
Steack tartare
Tapenade
Tarte à l'oignon
Tomates à la Provencale

Not exactly main courses, are they?

 
Levity is fine, and some of the points I raised invite levity (as per sobster and LittleA - say no more), but stop the bickering, accept the post for what it is - a heads-up to those US-based travellers who were not aware of the points I raised. (Obviously this doesn’t include denisea who pays attention...)

Now - can we raise the level of the discussion back up to “grown-up”? Thank you.

I thought it was all quite funny.

Another difference between the US and the ROTW is you don't understand/appreciate our humour. And don't start me on irony!!

The British seem to use French words for vegetables where the American use Italian words, e.g. courgette vs zucchini, rocket (or roquette)vs rucola. Does anyone know where the phrase "egg plant" comes from? The Italians call it melanzane.

In Britain, marrow are different from squash - we have both. Marrow are a larger version of courgette, although they are different varieties, not just overgrown versions. The French word for a marrow is "courge", so a courgette is a little marrow.

An interesting confusion is the word "pavement". If a Brit wants a child to be careful, he says "Stay on the pavement". An American child would respond by walking in the roadway.

and I know I'm in danger for posting this, but it made me laugh

A friend posted on his Facebook page:-

"If American tourists in Europe wish to avoid being a target of terror, they should ignore their government's advice and adopt a much simpler strategy. Keep your voice down in restaurants."