dick@tjalk.UUCP (Dick Grune) (11/21/85)
In article <547@dlvax1.datlog.UUCP> ajs@datlog.UUCP ( Andy Simms ) writes: > not only will you have a long wait >for an Esperanto (or even English) speaker, but nobody will understand ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >your map either. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Yes, amazingly maps are not an international language either: I found that several bus drivers in Cairo, Egypt (which is NOT Nepal) could not read a map of Cairo. Dick Grune Vrije Universiteit de Boelelaan 1081 1081 HV Amsterdam the Netherlands
jsq@im4u.UTEXAS.EDU (John Quarterman) (11/22/85)
It's very rare to find anyone in black Africa who understands maps.
I recall that there was an official state tourism office in Accra,
the capital of Ghana which, among other things, gave out maps of the city.
Unfortunately, the man who was giving them out couldn't read them.
In Congo and Gabon Equatorial Guinea (or Guinea Equatorial in French:
it's a neighboring country in Central Africa) is commonly referred to as
"Equatorial". Evidently the people who do so take that to be a proper
name, since I never found one who knew what "Equator" meant.
A number of people in that area asked me, when they discovered I was
from the United States ("Etats Unis"), whether I was from North America
or South America. Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, and such places
are just states in the United States, you see.
The usual answer for the distance from wherever you happen to be
(in the bush) to anyplace in the same general region is "two kilometers".
It doesn't matter whether the actual distance is half a kilometer
or thirty.
That reminds me of the chief in an outlying village of backwoods
Gabon who had no trouble believing that men had walked on the moon,
but got upset when we told him we had crossed the ocean to get to Gabon:
nobody can cross the ocean, after all....
--
John Quarterman, UUCP: {ihnp4,seismo,harvard,gatech}!ut-sally!im4u!jsq
ARPA Internet and CSNET: jsq@im4u.UTEXAS.EDU, formerly jsq@im4u.ARPAdb@cstvax.UUCP (Dave Berry) (11/25/85)
In article <660@im4u.UTEXAS.EDU> jsq@im4u.UUCP (John Quarterman) writes: >The usual answer for the distance from wherever you happen to be >(in the bush) to anyplace in the same general region is "two kilometers". >It doesn't matter whether the actual distance is half a kilometer >or thirty. I found a similar problem in the USA. No-one had any idea of how long it took to *walk* somewhere. When I was caught hitch-hiking in a mid-west storm a local told me there was a motel just 5 minutes walk down the road. By a fluke I got my first lift for hours just after that, and it took 10 minutes *in a car*. It's possible my "guide" was having some fun at my expense, but there were other examples too. -- Dave Berry. CS postgrad, Univ. of Edinburgh ...mcvax!ukc!cstvax!db
fred@mot.UUCP (Fred Christiansen) (12/04/85)
> > The usual answer for the distance from wherever you happen to be > > (in the bush) to anyplace in the same general region is "two kilometers". > > It doesn't matter whether the actual distance is half a kilometer > > or thirty. > > John Quarterman > > Of a similar flavor: in Cape Town SA: "Oh, we'll give you a ride into > town. We're leaving Just Now." > > Two hours and thirty minutes later ... > Ed Nather my favorite, while growing up in India, was the answer to any question regarding directions .. it was "str-r-raight! str-r-raight!". typically, there was a curve or two and a couple of turns involved. -- << Generic disclaimer >> Fred Christiansen ("Canajun, eh?") @ Motorola Microsystems, Tempe, AZ UUCP: {seismo!terak, trwrb!flkvax, utzoo!mnetor, ihnp4}!mot!fred ARPA: oakhill!mot!fred@ut-sally.ARPA "Families are Forever"