Having arrived in the United States from India, I can say with experience that communication across cultural boundaries has its own challenges. I was schooled in "British English" that uses several words that may seem strage or alien to Americans, and this has caused some occasional confusions.
To give an example: I was once waiting, along with several others, at a theme park in California, and innocently remarked to the person standing in front of me, "Long queue, huh!" and he asked, "What?" and I said in a clear tone, "IT IS A LONG QUEUE!" and he looked at me puzzled and then turned away. I wasn't sure why this happened till I had a long conversation with an American friend who told me that the "proper" word to use in the American context is "line" and not "queue"!
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I have to admit I laughed at this one. I have lived and studied in 4 different countries and I often forget what words are uncommon to U.S. speakers. I often receive quizzical looks for saying "Zed, queue, or knickers."
The other day I was joking with a friend about long lines and I said "I grew up in a Socialist country, I can queue like no other!" Rather than receiving a hearty chuckle, my words were responded with a black stare followed by "I don't know what that is."
Even moving from Southern California to Northern California, I encountered phrases I never heard before such as "hella." It's rather amusing how even a difference of just 300 miles can impact the way we communicate with one another.
During my summer break I read a book called Private Dancer, by Stephen Leather. Basically, this book narrates the journey of Pete - an Expatriated writer from England in Thailand. Pete falls in love with a girl, and among all the cultural differences they encounter, language is one of the biggest challenges for them.
As a foreign in Thailand, Pete’s Thai is very basic, which makes really hard for him to establish solid communication with people he socialized with. In many moments he got in trouble for saying something, and it turned out that a word did not mean exactly what he meant. And even when he was sure about what he meant to say, sometimes people did not understand his Thai. So indeed communication across cultural boundaries can be very challenging, no doubts.
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