Re: Lavatories, bathrooms,... Was: Re: Hymn to Ikea

Philippe Caquant  wrote:
>Toilets are also an interesting place from a
>semiologic point of view: it is one of the first
>places where the use of pictograms have been
>generalized, to indicate "MEN" vs "LADIES". I think
>this has spread all over the world by know, and it's a
>good thing, because imagine that you're in a Muslim
>country for ex, and you can't make the distinction
>between the words meaning "Men" and "Ladies" ? You
>might get your head chopped off. This is dangerous.
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I had to laugh at this, Philippe.  You reminded me of an embarassing
incident during my first trip to Spain in 1986 (and my first exposure to
the Catalan language).  I was in a Barcelona restaurant and went to use the
toilet.  The first door I came to was marked _SENYORES_.  Assuming this was
the Catalan equivalent to Spanish _SEÑORES_ I walked right in.  Needless to
say, I quickly learned that _senyores_ is the plural of Catalan _senyora_
and that the door I should have been looking for was marked _SENYORS_.  I
certainly could have used those pictograms you mention!

--John Quijada

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