Road Signs: International Edition

This has been a rather eventful month for road signs across the globe, so here’s a short round up of some of the more interesting news that caught my attention in January..

The Birmingham City Council, UK, has decided to drop possessive apostrophes from road signs, to the dismay of many, particularly the Apostrophe Protection Society (yes, that’s a real group, I am not kidding).

In political news, the “Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor” sign on Bolingbrook toll plaza in Illinois was reworded by workers to read “Boughton Rd Plaza 89,” cheered on by onlookers.

In Lithuania, the Supreme Administrative Court has mandated that street signs be written only in Lithuanian, a ruling that leaves the minority Polish and Russian speaking communities at a distinct disadvantage. The Polish Radio External Service reports that the verdict is expected to be appealed.

Hackers cracked into a digital Austin, Texas road sign, which was made to read “Zombies Ahead.”

Berlin-based Brad Downey‘s exhibition, “An Honest Thief,” a provocative reworking of public signs that dot urban landscapes, has been making waves across London.

Heated debates continue to rage around the multilingual signs in Bahasa Malaysia, Arabic, Chinese, and Tamil in Penang, Malaysia.

Perhaps, this one street sign has been on more minds than any other…

For tons more on signs, click here.

PS. On a personal note, this is my 100th post on Found in Translation…and I cannot begin to express the gratitude I feel for the intellectual platform it has afforded me over the last one year. Thank you to all the (known and unknown) readers out there, for the comments and the encouragement. Special thanks to Youki Terada, our newest admin, for keeping the faith-and hope-alive…and to Dave Malinowski, aka daveski, for too much to even attempt to express in words.

ধন্যবাদ!

and oh yeah, I <3 FIT.

Tags: Arabic, Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese, English, grammar, Lithuanian, Signs, street signs, Tamil, UK