Things you say in a restaurant.

A restaurant meal

Lately I’ve been working on a “Ramadan Special” English program for the radio. Basically, we just take an easy dialogue, say it once in just English and once with translation, then ask questions about the topic. Each week there’s a different dialogue and every day we ask a different question which listeners can answer by sending a text message to the radio station. Well, we chose topics which interest islanders who travel abroad, trying to think of phrases or words they might want to know.

One of the scenarios is at a restaurant.

What things do you think are important to know when you go to a restaurant? Things like the bill/check, menu, order, to go, and how to phrase your request for food and drink, right?

What about how to ask where the bathroom is?

It occurred to my islander counterpart and I that learning the location of the bathroom is a common part of going to a restaurant. But it caused a fun discussion between the two of us.

Islanders can go all day without using the bathroom. Between the amount you normally sweat, and the lack of liquid intake, well, they’re probably dehydrated as an entire nation. Add to that the factor that most restaurants here (unless located at a hotel) don’t have a bathroom, the thought of pairing those two activities seemed very strange to him.

Now, maybe you’ll tell me “Abby, you’re weird. Restaurants and bathrooms don’t go together.” But think about your habits a little… maybe I’m more right than you realized.

American culture has its weird elements too….