The intricacies of English

In some ways I'm very lucky that I primarily teach Elementary school students because they don't ask the same sorts of trivial yet curious questions as adults. I've begun to think that if I were to get the answer in an interview "What is your shortcoming" I would have to answer that I'm not a detail person. I don't care enough if all the corners are trimmed up nicely or if all the margins are imperfect order. Along the same note, I don't really care in speaking a foreign language if I say notebook when what I mean is binder. This later fact may actually be because I couldn't really tell you why a notebook is different from a binder. This proves difficult when someone learning English wants to know the difference between different things. I just had a conversation with two not so great English speakers about what different types of towels are called. The kind you use at a pool- a beach towel? Is a beach towel just bigger or must it be used at the beach. Then what is a small bathroom towel? A hand towel? That was my first response, but as the conversation continued I became less and less sure. I do no that a small towel is a washcloths, but if you carry it in your pocket does it become a hankirchif? These are the types of befuddling questions I have to ask myself when I am addressed as the expert on the English language. This is a problem. I don't know about the English language, I just know it. I've spent a day puzzling the difference between a drawer a cupboard a cabinet and a closet and several lunches discussing the difference between tangerine and oranges (in a country where both can be green, tangerines are often larger than oranges).