Do we speak the same language?

English is not simple even for those of us who are native speakers even though (in this case) one of us was from Canada and one of us from Australia. 

We were talking about communication and I relayed the following story. 

 I was at the counter, the server was busy at the back, and she asked me to wait a few minutes. In Australia the response to this kind of request is usually “No worries”, in Canada the response is slightly different and I responded “Not a problem”. Wrong response, when she was finished the work she were doing the woman came over to me and very aggressively said to me” What is your problem then?” I realized I had made a mistake and quickly said,” have no problem, it’s a Canadian response similar to your No worries.” She looked at me and laughed and said “Your from Canada then?” The atmosphere changed and she took my order even though the kitchen had just shut down. 

My friend said, “Rob (her husband) almost was in a fight because of lack of communication.” It turned out that Rob was in a discussion with a customer whose position he could not understand, so Rob said to him “I don’t know where you are coming from” but before he could say anything more the man started yelling about Rob being prejudiced and not liking where the man was born and the words became very heated. I understood what Rob was saying as would most of us who grew up using similar idioms and slang—Rob was saying to the man, I do not understand your position on this subject. The issue did not go away although Rob did lose the sale as the issue became more about perceived prejudice rather than misunderstanding of one’s position.

.Small things make for big understandings, so I think it is important to listen and not react too quickly to what you hear. What was said, may not have been what was meant