Signs. I love seeing signs when I travel. Signs can be informative but also hilarious. Signs can give you a real insight into a new place, a foreign country, a different culture. You can learn from signs as much as they can baffle you.
No kidding. But is this aimed at big Chinese smoke belching factories or at people farting?
When I travel, I can imagine what it must be like to be illiterate. Especially when that language uses a different alphabet than the one I’m familiar with. I have NO idea what these signs tell me.
And WHAT is to the right?
I wonder what kind of warnings or important information are on this sign?!
It’s a brave man who follows directional signs like that….
Of course, official traffic signs are the most worrisome if you have no clue what is says. But homemade signs can add a good chuckle to any trip!
This is a good sign!
Sale signs can be especially interesting. In Bucharest, Romenia it’s a good idea to die when the funeral home has a special sale on - 30% off !
This barber in Africa found a side job!
And in Israel they’ve found a way to cash in on biblical stories. You can buy authentic Cana wedding wine made from water.
Really, authentic first century pictures? Wonder what camera they used back then?
These two signs above are signs you’ll only see in the tropics! Coming from Canada, I did a double take and had to think about this.
And if you don’t have cardboard or metal to make a sign, well, just any old bone will do…
And it’s not just signs that make me feel illiterate… Why does this washing machine have On/Off in English but nothing else? I can see of number 40 but no idea what the other options are…
Menus, like signs, can be an endless source of entertainment. Like, what would you order off this menu which I was handed in Kenya? Some nice Matumbo with a side order of gizzard perhaps? Once you learn what each dish is, it’s a piece of cake. So to speak. But until then it’s a challenge. We ate in a restaurant in China where there was no English at all. We pointed at a few pictures and ended up being escorted to the kitchen where we could point at dishes that appealed.
I wonder why, when people go through the trouble of making signs in English, they don’t have someone spellcheck it for accuracy?
Yes, please don’t throw paper at the toilet.
It took me a while to realize there was an English translation on this Chinese sign on a store that sold oil paintings. Very uneque.
Sometimes signs are just unfortunately placed. Because who would want their librarian to be parked in a dumpster? Other times it’s just unfortunate that signs have a wrong connotation in English… I’m just glad this road in Holland is not my address.
And look, Hong Kong has one too.
I love signs of wildlife warnings. It always makes me hopeful to spot some of these amazing creatures. Like… I’d love to see a wombat wobbling down the road. Or a giant mouse. The penguin looks like he’d only use crosswalks and knows to look both ways. Elk in Alaska seem to carry satellite antennae on their head. And whát is that last animal? Looks like one that stuck its neck out too far and got run over despite the sign.
It actually worked once. In Australia, of course, we spotted a sign warning of echidna crossing the road. And ‘lo and behold, a few meters past the sign we spotted a real echidna!
In Canada, we’re more economical so we can combine three-in-one sign!
I live on an eclectic island and our chances of seeing this animal seem high…
And also in Australia, they’re not kidding when you see a sign for long vehicles. A regular, full length school bus is 13 meters. So these ‘road trains’ are more than 4 school busses total in one vehicle!
This sign was seriously placed on a patio of a coffee shop in Istanbul. Coffee, yes. Kissing, no!
I liked this road sign better! Spotted at a school’s drop off lane!
Sometimes I’m not entirely sure what a sign means, even if it is not in a foreign language…
Bury your dog here? No, I do get it.
But this green one had me stumped until I learned it indicates an emergency net to climb out of water…
Good idea!
Signs to toilets are a chapter to themselves! I always love seeing the gender signs in different countries. And the toilets themselves, too… I saw ones in Korea and Japan with entire remote controls and buttons for many functions…
I wonder if dogs in Shanghai can read this sign?
But this is my favourite bathroom sign:
Some signs have instructions or orders. When we rented a car in Malaysia, for instance, it had this sign on the windshield. No drinking, and definitely no durians. Durians are a foul smelling fruit in Asia that is prohibited in hotels and apartment buildings as well.
In the United States I was in a convention center that prohibited firearms ánd balloons…
And in some places….
This horn has not been blown since the 1920’s.
It has now been replaced by the cell phone. Thank goodness, cell phones need to be silenced in some place. But do note the background here! In The Netherlands there are silent trains, but also certains forests were cell phones need to be silenced. A rule we should perhaps adopted more widely…
And what to make of this sign? Head Hunters International?
When you come to my house, you will see this sign!
OK, enough already…
