Some interesting observations here. One could say that standard phrases should be the same the (aviating) World around. Things like "Clear to land RWY 25R" etc should be pretty straight forward. However different places concoct their own idiosyncracy's because of local issues. Here in Hong Kong we say "Descend to 6000 FEET" which some people that never come here might find strange, but then in the next breath we may be clearing an aircraft to climb to "Flight Level 6900 METRES ". I feel a bit sorry for the thread starter and some of his/her supporters, as some Controllers can be a bit high handed at times. It would be interesting to see a PPLune (sic) thread in Mandarin that some of the Chinese pilots that fly into here would subscribe to, with some of the "bollockings" that they have to put up with from some of my colleagues.