a polite way to say (to pee)

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Vincent Teo  #420615  Tue, 18 Sep 07 02:57 PM

What is the polite way to say, if you friends asked you what are you doing at that moment?

(a) If you are in the restroom to pee / to ***.

What do the students say to the teacher if the teacher want to know what they do.

(eg, to pee , to let gas? / to ***?)

  
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Grammar Geek  #420616  Tue, 18 Sep 07 03:05 PM

This topic has been discussed over and over again in this forum.

In the US and in the UK, we are not specific about what we need to do in the bathroom/restroom/washroom/loo/toilet. It would be extremely unusual for someone to ask what you were doing, and a teacher would not ask a student what he or she needed to do. It would be shocking, really.

There are dozens of euphamisms, from the childish to the vulgar, from "visit the loo" to "spend a penny" to "see a man about a horse" to "pee." And that's leaving out all of the vulgar ones.

Is it really so common in other cultures to come back from the toilet and discuss what happened? We get so many questions about it!

  
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Selvakumar  #420664  Tue, 18 Sep 07 04:59 PM
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ...... Culture shock!...

In Asia, at least from the part of the world that I come from, it is never considered impolite or  unusual for someone to tell "why" he had been to the toilet or even for someone to ask "why" he went. Well, personally, as a little boy, I used to find it a little curious for anyone to reveal any such information or for anyone to even think of asking such things.

I guess I have got acclimatized to all these.

Well, to add on, you would be in for a greater shock if you ever decide one day to move to or work in a country like mine, where it is not considered rude to ask someone (even one whom he could have just met) personal questions such as "How many children do you have?", "How much are they paying you?"

Well, one of those things about culture!
  
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