Enlightened

Once when climbing down a mountain I ran into a young, English-speaking couple on their way up. We were in the middle of nowhere, and we were worried not to be able to make it before it got dark. They wanted to make it to the top, I wanted to make it to the ground. So we exchanged some information about distances and paths and our chances to make it. During this conversation I asked them if they had a torch. The woman said yes, the man said no. When he added that they had a flashlight, however, I realised that we were dealing with a piece of intra-cultural communication, and that I was talking to a British-American couple. My question must have appeared rather backward, extravagant, outlandish to him.