—English.
Traveling without a map in different countries, I find out about different ways of directions every time I ask “How can I get to the post office?”
Foreign tourists are often puzzled in Japan because most streets there don't have name signs. In Japan, people use landmarks (地标) in their directions instead of street names. For example, the Japanese will say to travelers, “Go straight down to the corner. Turn left at the big hotel and go past a fruit market. The post office is across from the bus stop.”
People in Los Angeles, the US, have no idea of distance on the map: they measure distance by time, not miles. “How far away is the post office?” you ask. “Oh,” they answer, “it's about five minutes from here.” You don't understand completely, “Yes, but how many miles away is it, please?” To this question you won't get an answer, because most probably they don't know it themselves.
People in Greece sometimes do not even try to give directions because tourists seldom understand the Greek language. Instead, a Greek will often say, “Follow me.” Then he'll lead you through the streets of the city to the post office.
Sometimes a person doesn't know the answer to your question. What happens in the situation? A New Yorker might say, “Sorry, I have no idea.” But in Yucatan, Mexico, no one answers “I don't know.” People there believe that “I don't” is impolite. They usually give an answer, but often a wrong one. So a tourist can get lost very easily in Yucatan! However, one thing will help you everywhere in the world. It's body language.
As is known to all, English in international communication.
Germans have a word "wanderlust" which translated into English would be the desire to wander. Nowadays the opportunity to travel is endless. Thanks to lowcost airfares, travelling all over the world is very accessible and sometimes it's even cheaper to fly out of the country than to travel within your own.
I have always had the feeling of wanderlust. As a young girl it started from me wanting to explore my local woods at the back of my garden. With me growing up, I have a sense of adventure. And I found my local woods being replaced with the Brazilian wetland, Pantanal, where I went last summer in search of jaguars, snakes and crocodiles.
The thing with travelling is always different. Even if you go to the same country, to the same town and stay in the exact same rest house, it would be a completely different experience. The people you meet will be different, and they will tell you their own travelling stories: stories of holiday romances, holiday horrors and stories that seem so suspect that you can hardly believe them until something ridiculous happens to you and you find yourself becoming one of those people telling your tales. Or maybe the difference is yourself.
When you travel you are forced to be in harmony with a new culture. Whether it's eating a strange food, or staying with a family, where neither of you speak a common language and you have to communicate through hand movements and smiles, the experience gives me itchy feet to do it all again. And although wanderlust is originally a German word, the English idiom reflects a similar idea. Someone with that needs to leave or travel. This feeling to explore is found not only in language but in us.
Some American leaders proposed major1in the language. Benjamin Franklin wanted a whole2system of spelling. His3were not accepted. But his ideas did4others. One was Noah Webster.
Webster5language books for schools. He believed the United States should have a system of its own language as well as government. Webster6a dictionary of the American language in 1828. It established7for speaking and spelling the words8in American English.
Webster wrote that all words should be said in the order of the9that spell them. This is why Americans use the letters "e-r" to10many words instead of the British "r-e." He11the word "center," for example, "c-e-n-t-e-r," instead of the British "c-e-n-t-r-e."
Noah Webster said every part of a word should be12. That is why Americans say "sec-re-ta-ry" instead of "sec-re-try," as the British do. Webster's rule for saying every part of a13to a large extent made American English14for foreign settlers to15. They learned to say "waist-coat," for example, the way it is spelled instead of the British "wes-kit."
The different16of many people who came to the United States also17make American and British English18. Many of their foreign words and19became part of English as Americans20 it today.
