About 50 years ago my family was visiting my uncle and his family in the Miami area. My uncle (dad’s brother) was doing his residency (he’s an oncologist still) and had several friends who came from overseas for their medical education.

One of the MDs was from India, and while he was near fluent in English, he was completely perplexed when my father, telling everyone we were headed back to our hotel, declared that we’d be “hitting the road.” A quick idiom lesson later, and the friend had learned a new phrase