In some of the client offices where I work meetings are like a gathering of the UN. Forget trying to illustrate a point with a colloquialism or idiom or American anecdote... most of the staff don’t get them.
A boy at one of the companies where I work frequently keeps a book of my sayings he finds them so unique. Where I grew up all conversation was peppered with quaint but mostly clever sayings that just summed things up so well.
Family moved to California from Hannibal, Mo. in the 1930’s. I believe the town of Hannibal must have had Colloquialisms stacked on the docks from the Riverboat days.