I just cannot wrap my mind around the idea that some people strongly differentiate between a "bathroom" and a "restroom"/WC/Toilet room to the point that when I ask where the bathroom is they will think I need a bath. I need someone to find me an example of something Americans needlessly differentiate between so that I can feel less frustrated with this. I think I remember a frustrating argument with someone about freeway/highway/parkway
Yesterday on Duolingo I read a long comment thread about whether "to ride a bike" is the appropriate translation for "fietsen" (the action of biking). With some English-speakers claiming no one would ever say "to bike," others saying everyone says "to bicycle," and others that only "to ride a bike" is acceptable. One person was even saying that Americans assume "to bike" means to ride a motorcycle.
In other linguistic news, I read today about how linguists believe that German is moving, slowly, towards using a more English-like (Subject Verb Object) word order, and that it seems to be following a pattern similar to the pattern English followed back in the day. It is now getting closer, if I remember right, to the Dutch word order, which is S-V-O in main clauses and S-O-V in dependent clauses. I can't celebrate this one, "I have her in the kitchen helping needful" is way more fun than "I need her help in the kitchen."
Whoa: just learned that in Dutch "each" is elke, and "which" is "welke"... which makes me realize "which" is w+each.