When I was 16 years old，I made my first visit to the United States. It wasn’t the first time I had been abroad. Like most English children，I learned French at school and I had often been to France，so I was used to speaking a foreign language to people who didn’t understand English. But when I went to America I was really looking forward to having a nice easy holiday without any language problems.

How wrong I was! The misunderstanding began at the airport. I was looking for a public telephone to give my friend Danny a ring and tell her that I had arrived. A friendly old man saw me looking like being lost and asked if he could help me.

“Yes，” I said.“I want to give my friend a ring.”

“Well，that’s nice，” he said.“Are you getting married? But aren’t you a bit young？”

“Who is talking about marriage？” I replied.“I just want to give my friend a ring to tell her I’ve arrived. Can you tell me where there’s a phone box？”

“Oh！” he said.“There’s a phone downstairs.”

When at last we did meet up，Danny explained the misunderstanding to me.

“Don’t worry，” she said to me.“I had many difficulties at first. There are lots of words which the Americans use differently in meaning from us British. You’ll soon get used to all the funny things they say. But most of the time British and American people can understand each other！”

It is important to know another language and how to communicate without words when you are in another country. Before saying anything, people communicate with each other by using gestures(手势). However, many gestures have different meanings, or no meaning at all, in different parts of the world.

In the United States, nodding your head up and down means “yes”, while in some parts of Greece and Turkey, it means “no”. In the southeast of Asia, it is a polite way of saying “I heard you”.

Today in the USA, when someone puts his thumb up, it means “Everything is all right.” However, in Greece it is bad. Also putting your clasped(紧握的) hands up above your head means “I am the winner.” It is the sign which players often make. In Russia it is the sign of friendship.

In the USA, holding your hand up with the thumb and index finger(食指), and the other three straight means “Everything is OK.” In France, it means “You are worth nothing.”

It is also important to make eye communication. If you look down when talking to an American, he or she may feel that you are shy, or you are trying to hide something.

Besides these, you should also know there are some topics that cannot be talked about, such as age, weight and marriage. You can talk about the weather, work, sports, food, where one lives and news of the day.

If you do someone a good turn today, don’t expect a thank you. ‘Cheers’, ‘ta’ or even ‘wicked’ is the more likely response, if a survey（调查） is to be believed.

Research among computer users suggests that people have stopped using the traditional expression of gratitude（感激）.

Almost half of those surveyed said they now use ‘cheers’ more often than ‘thank you’.

Two thirds of people in the survey believed Britain was a ‘rude’ nation and 84 percent thought others should make more of an effort to show gratitude.