Escort

I never cease to be amazed at how the English language can be so different in another place.

Class had just been dismissed for tea. I hung around outside the classroom door because I needed to collect papers from a few of the girls. Instead of running to the dining hall to get their tea, about four girls sat down on the grass to bask in the sun. This is our conversation.

“Aren’t you girls going to go get your tea?” I asked.

“No,” they replied, “we don’t have an escort.”

Laughingly I said, “I’ll take you down to the dining hall and be your escort.” There was no reply. So I continued, “Did you get in trouble or something? Is there some reason you can’t go to the dining hall?”

Then they started laughing, “Since we don’t have anything to take with our tea we don’t want it.”

“Oh, you want something to eat with your tea, bread or something. Is that right?”

That is one time the Oxford Dictionary didn’t help me!

Here’s another example that I’ve run across several times this week as I’ve graded compositions, but this one is in the Oxford Dictionary. I had no otherwise but to go home. Definition of otherwise: choice.