When your English fails you in an English-speaking country

NEW YORK - Most people in the English-speaking world are probably aware that people in the United States and United Kingdom have different ways of describing the same thing.

A garbage can in the US is a rubbish bin in the UK. A sweater in one is a woolly jumper in the other. A checking account in the US is a current account in Britain.

Pants here are always trousers over there. Here you order takeout food; there it's "a takeaway". A truck here is a lorry there. A cookie here is a biscuit there, whether it's chocolate chip or peanut butter.