Things I Just Don't Think I'll Get Used To

When you move to a new country, it's your job to fit yourself into the culture. It's not acceptable to me that locals here will "understand what I mean because it's American and they're used to tourists or they've seen it on TV." I moved here, and I should adapt myself to my surroundings. Not the other way around.

But there are a couple of phrases I'm having a particularly hard time with.

#1: The Toilet. As in "Miss, can I use the toilet?" while I'm at school. Or "Excuse me, where is the toilet?" when I'm at a restaurant. In Canada, it's considered pretty low-brow to refer to it thus. We're much more accustomed to asking for the "bathroom" or "washroom." And to be honest, I have felt a little uncomfortable for my whole life even using those terms. I'm too dang Canadian, and it seems impolite to mention by name the room in which we do things which we do not mention in polite conversation. But here, they just ask for the porcelain throne itself! I have to physically force myself to use the word toilet. In fact, I rewrote that last sentence three times because I didn't even want to type it. I didn't want you to read it, hear my voice in the writing, and listen to me say toilet. But I suppose if you were here with me, you'd hear me say it out loud. So there you have it. I've said it. Toilet. Toilet, toilet, toilet. Perhaps if I repeat it several times, it will become more comfortable and roll off my tongue with ease? Perhaps not.

#2: "Are you all right?" This is the default question over here. It's akin to "Oh, hi! How are you?" back home. Each and every time I walk into the other Year 1 class, the teacher says "Are you all right?" Every time my Agency consultant calls me, he asks "Are you all right?" It's CRAZY, I'm telling you! In Canada, you only ask someone if they're all right if you think they're not. It took me a full week to understand that they weren't actually concerned about me. I wasn't walking around looking like I was going to fall down or burst into a rage. It's not concern people are expressing, necessarily. It's just the way they greet you.

#3: The Light Switches. They're all upside down! Upon reflection, I suppose it doesn't make any more or less sense to designate "ON" as "up" or vice versa. But I've spent 27 years walking into rooms and flicking a switch up. So it's hard to adjust to flicking it down every time. I think this will be the thing I just get used to over time. Turning something off by flicking up will become second nature; then, when I return to Canada, it will feel wrong again. Oh well... c'est la vie!