Local Response....

In Norway, I greeted a Spaniard with "Hola, como estas?"

He shot back, "I'm sorry, I don't speak English."

hmmm...

What a refreshing thread!

Until now, SiT has been dominated by a small group who write like they own it.

I suggest all of the above post more often in SiT :)

I was asking directions back to a main highway in rural Maine a few years back, and the response from the older gentleman was something like, "Well, head down this road a ways, but when it goes off to the right, you let it go."

Ah highway directions.

Lots of American expressions that confuse. You still hear "over yonder" said in the south which means somewhere away from where you currently are with the distance away not specified although it is implied that it isn't too far.

This one used to confuse me a lot when I lived in the south and someone offerred to "carry me across town" which meant to give me a ride in their car.

Once in my life, I received a reply from a very nice gentleman in Namur, Belgium, who replied the same sort of thing that I sometimes say.

"Do you know where the Ibis Hotel is?"
"Yes, I do."

When I changed the question to "Can you tell me how to get to the Ibis Hotel?" I received the information that I needed.

I should also mention people who give directions such as "Turn left up where the McDonald's used to be."

i was once asked for directions whem i was living in newfoundland. while giving the directions i said somthing along the lines of "you'll come to dildo" and she stoped me immiditly, and was very offended cause she though i was trying to be funny or rude. but she found it pretty funny when i explained to her there was actully a town called dildo.

#25 - that reminds me, somewhat off topic, of the time a tourist in Dublin asked me the way to the Hibernian Hotel. I looked puzzled and explained to him that it had closed down and been demolished quite a few years previously, at which point it was his turn to look puzzled. What I didn't know was that a new hotel had opened up some years after the passing of the rather famous original, and decided to adopt its name. I wonder how often that turned out to conceal pitfalls.

a tourist in Dublin asked me the way to the Hibernian Hotel. I looked puzzled and explained to him that it had closed down and been demolished

A work colleague of mine landed in Panama City and asked a taxi to take him to a hotel where he had a reservation. The taxi driver advised him that this was not the kind of hotel an international business man should go to, indeed not even to that part of town. Nevertheless, since my colleague knew not what else to do, he took him there. On entering the hotel, which did indeed appear as the taxi driver described, he discovered he did not have a reservation there. He had a reservation for a hotel of the same name in Panama City, Panama, but he was in Panama City, Florida. He should indeed have been in Panama City, Panama. Now to his excuse, they do use dollars and speak a lot of English in Panama, and speak a lot of Spanish in Florida. But he had been so ignorant of geography, that it had not even occurred to him it was impossible to get from Miami to Panama on the sub-1hr flight he had been on.