Spending 3 months in Malaysia and Australia respectively this year, and now that I am in Canada, I have to admit, sometimes, I feel like a very ‘confused’ lady, regardless where I am.

Well, the story begins when I realise I use different words to describe the same thing. Then, I get confused and people around me, either don’t quite understand me or get confused too.

One example, the phone, I mean the ‘personal phone’ you carry with you. I am sure you know what I am talking about In Melbourne, people commonly refer it as ‘mobile phone’, the short form is ‘mobile’. In Toronto,  it is called ‘cell phone’ here. If you are lazy, just say ‘cell’, people understand too. In KL, I think people normally call it ‘handphone’. I don’t think there is a short form for it. Can’t be ‘hand’, right? Not too sure

So, I will call it ‘mobile’ here because I bought my first mobile phone in Australia, and I do usually call it ‘mobile’. So, the problem starts here. When I was in KL, I called it ‘mobile’. Sometimes, people didn’t quite get it. And, it took me a while to realise, it is normally called ‘handphone’ there. I think, there might be called something else too. Does it?  If someone ask me ‘what is your handphone number?’ I would take a few minutes to response.

I remember there was once when I went to American embassy to apply for visa, the security guard asked for my ‘handphone’ to leave it for him to keep. At that time, I was already quite distressed by the heavy security there, and my brain could not ‘click’ so quickly. I said, ‘huh? what is handphone?’ What an idiot ! I , of course, realised immediately I had asked an extremely stupid question.

And now, back to Toronto, it is taking me some time to adjust to ‘the cell’ here. Sometimes, I still say ‘mobile’, and sometimes, handphone ( I learned well, I guess ). If I remember I am in Toronto, I will call it ‘cell’ but ‘uncomfortably’, because I am still not used to it yet. When I say ‘cell’, I feel like I don’t know what I am talking about, but everyone here understands me. Weird feeling.

There are other examples, like washroom, restroom, ladies/men, or toilets. Do you know which is more commonly used in which country?

A tip here. Last night, I went to a pub and was ‘excited’ to see the sign there was ‘ladies’. Then, I was a little confused (again), and asked Ed, ‘what do people call toilets here?’.  He said, ‘That is an English pub, that’s why. And, please remember, we don’t call it ‘toilet’ here.’

Ok, thanks Ed, I get it