Once you know a few simple rules, being American and hearing non-Americans speak English gets a lot easier. For instance, vowels in American English are different from the vowels in most European languages, including British English and most other English-speaking countries.

British English, Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese all use the Latin vowel sounds Ahh, Ehh, EEE, Ohh, and OOO, with Yih or Ih often used for Y. H comes out Haitch, and J comes out 'h' in some cases. Bilingual Mexicans generally speak English more like Americans, because many of their teachers are American. There are, of course, many exceptions.

In college, I worked summers in textile mills back when there still were textile mills in SC. I was working with a Pakistani and two working class Brits, one from Oldham and one from Accrington. Occasionally, they had a visiting manager from Manchester. The four or five of us were repairing and re-conditioning textile machinery made by the British company my Dad worked for. The mill "fixers" (maintenance workers) working with us were native South Carolinians of Scots-Irish and Irish descent. They had spent 98% of their lives within 50 miles of home. It was as if they spoke a COMPLETELY different language from the Brits. Many of them had no more than an 8th grade education. The Pakistani sounded more like the Brits, because he learned English from British-sounding teachers and college professors as he grew up.

Anyway, I often played translator within that group. I understood all their accents, and most of their word usage differences, because I'd taken a LOT of English lit classes by then. They would laugh uproariously when I would translate, "Dat dough-un lukk rahht. Gee-me dat dere wree-inch" ("That doesn't look right, hand me that wrench," in "mill worker-ese") into, "Ah dough-aunt like thaaht. An' me thaaht spannah," in the particular regional British vernacular of my coworkers.

English has many variants all over the world. To this day I marvel at how we can speak the same language and yet make no sense to one another. Throw in its usage as a second language, and things can get interesting! Thank goodness for subtitles on TV shows from Britain, Australia, India, and New Zealand.

If you want intense, informative and extremely technical data as how to use a camera, General Chit-Chat really has no place in your vocabulary or reading material.
I dont mind investing some personal time to reading about non-photography stuff.

Just because I have a radio in my car does not mean I will listen to traffic reports for the next two or three hours while being stuck in rush hour traffic.
I will listen to my classic rock and roll music station. I will listen to some CDs that I have. I will listen to my daughter singing and playing her piano.





Since it is very hard to put a piano in the back seat, I have her recordings on CDs too.
PS…Don’t be a Smart A$$!
Besides, I like Jerry!!

I have been around the auto industry for 50+ years.
I can immediately see that you do do not have a Lexus problem near as much as you have a dealer problem.

This industry has changed immensely over the years. Dealers make hardly anything off the sale of the car.
Dealers survive from the profits made from parts and service.

A call to Lexus corporate customer care would have made a massive amount of difference in a case like yours. Once you get a regional rep in the loop, things will change. Unfortunately, the money you have already spent is behind you.
In my post almost 5 years ago, in this thread, I highly recommended the purchase of the factory warranty. Especially if you plan to keep the car for a long time. The Platinum level is the best and it can be extended on some models. Coverage terms range from three years/50,000 miles to 10 years/125,000 miles on new vehicles and from one year/12,000 miles to five years/60,000 miles on used vehicles.
When you consider that Toyota’s factory bumper-to-bumper warranty expires after just three years or 36,000 miles, and its powertrain warranty expires at five years or 60,000 miles, being able to extend your coverage to up to 125,000 miles is pretty impressive.
Once out of warranty with an older car, as in your case, I suggest an independent repair place that has a good reputation. They will do quality work for about half the cost of the dealer.

Trix is correct. Toyota has one of the highest ratings worldwide for quality & reliability.