Find The Boots

Rantings from a few corporate types about life, technology, travel, guns, politics, and everything good in the world.

These Foreigners Have Different Words for Everything

Saturday, August 05, 2006

We've all experienced the reality that the United Kingdom and the USA are close allies, separated only by a common language. Mr. G. writes in to tell us how the British Empire made that true all over the world:

I've been at a meeting in India all week. The first day, we had a pot of coffee and cookies brought to our conference room by the "Office Boy." The second day, no coffee, so I called the front desk and asked for a pot of coffee. They asked how many people we had, and I answered six. An office boy shows up with 6 individual cups of coffee. Being the only coffee drinker in the group, this wasn't quite what I wanted. I said I wanted a pot, not six cups. He just bobbed his head and left the room. The next day I cornered him and said I wanted a "pot" of coffee for the conference room, not six cups. An Indian, who used to live in the USA happened by, and said "Oh, he wants a Flask of Coffee." My pot of coffee then showed up. Now, if we could only introduce regular sized coffee cups over there...

Hmm, let's see. In the US it's a pot, in the UK it's a jug, and in India it's a flask. Now I'm all for drinking a flask at work, but it usually has something other than coffee in it...

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Find The Boots

An executive goes on a business trip. When he arrives, it's raining cats and dogs. To avoid ruining his shoes, he purchases a pair of galoshes for $15, which he expenses under "Misc." on his expense report. A week later, the accounting department rejects his expense report, with a post-it note that says that the company does not reimburse for items of clothing. The next trip, the executive turns in an expense report without the galoshes, but with a post-it note that says "FIND THE BOOTS!".