I'm from the South so everything is sweetened, coffee and tea.

I'd love to do that (well, lattes in my case) but our espresso machine is broken. I love the way that Isomac called their flagship coffee machine the Tea!

You can vote "Blank" or "Null".

As we use a electronic voting system (I never understood why other big countries like the US still use paper voting systems) a "Null" vote happens when you insert a wrong number. A "Blank" vote happens when you hit the "Blank Vote" button. In both cases your vote doesn't go to any candidate.

I have a possibly polemic question!
Why americans developed such a self-safety culture even trough they live in a "extremely" safe country? I mean, in the US a fire weapon is seem as a "defensive tool", while in most places it's seem as an violent and dangerous "tool".

Remember, electronics malfunction all the time. I much prefer paper slips.

They do?

Well, compared to the really violent places, they do.

Not to say that the "Weapon Culture" is stronger in "safer" places like country cities if I know right.


Our voting system never malfunctioned (Apart from isolated cases, never as a whole) since 2000. We are even trying to implement a biometric system to identify the voter (So no one can vote twice and so)

Very common. It's actually one of the specials in Hong Kong. We call it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong-style_milk_tea.

Question: What do you normally call the restroom in your country?

Bathroom? Washroom? W/C? Lavatory? Toilet?

I remember being in London and most of the signs said "toilet." I found that a little off-putting. Is that the normal term?

Toilet, but whatever you said is fine by everyone except not everyone would speak in English.

Toilets (Sanitário) in public places and signs and Bathroom (Banheiro) in houses.

Does the word literally translate to "toilet" or something else in Cantonese(?) ?

Oh you're right of course. It's just that most here would never think of the US as an extremely safe country. For me a super safe country would be some place like Switzerland, or maybe some of the Scandinavian countries. But the US is very safe too compared to other countries.

@ TinyHowie
Is this silk stocking milk tea good? It sure looks tempting on the first picture.

I thought HK might have it, due to the British. What about the rest of China, or is it more of a HK thing ?

In Norway we call it "Toalett" which obviously translates into Toilet. It's also common with "WC". We also call it Bathroom/Washroom but it really depends.

The word Toilet isn't exactly off-putting in Norway, it's actually the finer/formal version of saying toilet. Off-putting would be calling it "Do" or "Dass".

Physical evidence seems safer, to me. I like South Africa's voting system: all the paper slips are hand-counted. I'm not sure how I'd feel about voting in a place that doesn't have this procedure.


"Toilet" in public, "bathroom" in private; "water closet" usually refers to what might elsewhere be called the laundry room.

Most of Europe's public spaces, if they do have an English translation, simply refer to it as a WC.

If you're in public place like a building and are asking to use facilities, "restroom" seems the most common. eg, "Where is your restroom?"
If you're hanging out with friends/family being more casual, where I live at least, the most common is "bathroom". eg, "Going to the bathroom."

Because we have an all-invasive culture of media that likes to blast us with "12 dead in peaceful, sleepy suburb when man walked into building with a shotgun!" stories, which makes people paranoid about unexpected violence shattering their peaceful lives. It's a psychological thing, imo. When you don't have actual war/something specific to be afraid of, some people will find something to be overly afraid of/threatened by. *shrug* (imo of course).
Which isn't to say there aren't some cities or areas of cities in the US that are pretty dangerous sometimes. There are parts of Oakland that I wouldn't walk around by myself at 2am, even if the actual odds are that I'd survive it just fine. But that's my paranoia speaking.

It's toilet or loo for me.

It's always "bathroom" or "restroom" here. We were forced to call it the "lavatory" in grade school, but I've never heard that used anywhere else.

That's the word we were taught to use in English when I was in primary school. I wonder why since nobody actually uses it.

I think I would've only figured out that "restroom" referred to the toilet by the context, otherwise I'd assume you were referring to the bedroom which is usually where I go to rest. Likewise, referring to it as the "bathroom" sounds a little odd as in general, it doesn't share a room with the bath. Usually it's just the toilet or lavatory here in the UK.

I call the bathroom the toilet "i need the toilet" or quite simply bathroom "the shampoo is in the bathroom cupboard". In times of faecal excretion it is referred to as "the bog".

Or, indeed, the bog. The regional variant from where I originate is the netty.

The bog? I need to start using that!

We’d rather not think about what you do in there and pretend you just took a bath instead.

If you’re in a store, and have to go, they go so far as to call it the employee “washroom.”

Nobody calls it washroom? Oh well....

And lol at all the people going "America is a safe country???".

What is the legal drinking age in other countries...?


(Im from America
Dont kill me )