Toilet

Luckily he did just mean from the bathroom sink. I do understand the confusion though. In Australia if it’s public toilets we can just say “toilets” and if you are “going to go fill up a bottle in the toilets” in public it’s understood that they are using the sinks, not actually filling a bottle with toilet water. So he thought he could just use the word “toilet” to mean our bathroom.

Australians tend to use the word “toilet” a lot more than Americans it seems. Often in Australia, a toilet may not actually be in the bathroom, but in a separate small toilet room often near the bathroom. I remember when I was younger and we had American visitors in our house and they asked to use the bathroom. We had to ask if they wanted to actually use the toilet or the bathroom because no point showing them the toilet-less bathroom if they actually wanted to use a toilet.

Also we can drink the water straight out of the tap in Australia. In Korea they seem to always drink bottled water. I sometimes feel a bit stressed when I’m in countries where you need to buy bottled water because I’m so used to just drinking tap water. I can sometimes panic that I don’t have enough bottles of water to last me, and I’ll die of thirst overnight haha.

What do you call the……”facilities” in your country? Bathroom? I’ve heard “Wash room” before. Australians and Brits I think, may say “loo” for toilet. So many conversations can be had about toilets! A good friend of mine gave me a book about toilets all around the world. Really interesting! Also, Australian toilets flush a different way to American toilets. Another toilet fact is in some areas of Korea, particularly rural areas, or even just some older buildings, you can’t flush the toilet paper, you have to put it into the bin next to the toilet because of the plumbing. If you are not used to that it can be hard to remember to do that….

If you have some interesting toilet facts about your own country, please share! Just don’t drink water out of the toilet….