Signs that fail to warn

Recently my husband and I were taking a short hike in Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve and were surprised to find this cautionary sign. I wondered if a non-native speaker would understand that this is a warning sign of what lies ahead for a visitor or if (s)he would recognize the meaning of steep stone steps.

Why write a warning sign as a tongue twister? What are tongue twisters? Every language has them. They are often poems or lines with combinations of words that are difficult to say in quick succession, such as "She sells seashells by the seashore." In the example above, after the number "118," there are three words all beginning with the two-letter combination of "st" (steep, stone, and steps).  Try to say these three words as quickly as possible. Here you have a sign written as a tongue-twister.

The important part of the sign, however, comes at the end "proceed with care." It is great to have fun with native speakers visiting the park, but what about the non-native speaker who fails to understand that this is a warning sign to be cautious or careful? I think it fails.

The Poop on Dog Poop!

One of the most ineffective signs I have seen around southern California was this one in downtown Los Angeles. It was next to the historic landmark, the Angels Flight Railway.

Without a drawing or image of a dog defecating, it is very unlikely that a non-native speaker (or even a native speaker) would recognize this multi-syllabic word for "poop" or "sh_t."

Do you know what LAMC sec. 53.49 is?  Why is that part written in the same font and size as the message?  It carries no meaning unless you happen to have the Los Angeles Municipal Code handy.  It refers to a city law that makes dog-owners responsible for cleaning up their dog's poop in a public area. If a dog-owner doesn't pick up the poop, (s)he could be fined $20. Since there were plenty of dog messes lying around, this sign clearly wasn't doing its job.

I wonder why. There is zero power in the passive voice ("must be removed...by owners").  Also, though I understand the words used in the sign, I was confused. Who are "owners under penalty of law"? Doesn't this law apply to everyone who walks a dog on public property? Maybe we need advertising agents to create our street signage.

***By the way, there are other meanings of poop that have nothing to do with "dog defecation."

Cause Comics (dot) com

How many of you read the daily comics in the newspaper? Are you familiar with Peanuts, Dilbert, Garfield, and the Farside? Have you explored comic books for expanding your English language skills? If you haven't yet tried it, you should definitely explore this medium. In fact, my home base of San Diego hosts what may be the largest comic convention in the world, Comic-Con International.

Cause Comics gets the reader thinking about the multiple layers of complexity of environmental issues - especially, the competitive nature of NGOs (non-governmental organizations or non-profit organizations) which, similar to for-profit companies, are vying for the public's discretionary money. Comic books are yet another way to combine storytelling and pictures, which is very much the focal interest of my blog. Cause Comics is offering its first publication for free! Check it out!

Because of the nature of CauseComics.com, it is easy for readers to have a dialog with the author, so if there is something you like or that you don't understand in this first pdf volume, make a comment or send a message to the author. This is another way to practice your English like a native speaker. Be interactive.

***For those of you who are Gary Larson fans (sadly, he stopped creating new cartoons about 20 years ago), here is a look at the reaction of scientists to his creations and a review of his late 1980's exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History.

"H" is for Head

A Head of Lettuce

A head (noun - counter) of lettuce/cabbage

• You are having a party and have asked your roommate to pick up some lettuce on the way back to the apartment. You need at least two "lettuces."  Hmmm… That doesn't sound right, does it? What you need are two heads of lettuce, not just one.  You've invited eight people, plus your roommate and yourself, so you're going to need more than one head of lettuce.

Head (verb) to the park/supermarket

• "Where are you headed?" your friend asks as you stride quickly down the hallway. "I'm late for my chem class," you say. So, what does "head" mean in this context? 

Head (verb) - to be in control of a company, to lead a group 

• Tim Cook has headed Apple since Steve Jobs passed away.

The head (noun) of a company - the CEO, the boss

Inside one's head (noun) is a brain - the head of a dragon sculpture in Anza Borrego Desert State Park

You can find a whole page worth of meanings and uses of head online with the Free Dictionary. 

"G" is for get

"Get" is one of those all-purpose words that seems to fit everywhere except where it doesn't. Its original meaning has been lost over the centuries. According to Merriam Webster's online dictionary, "geta" came from Old Norse and meant "beget."  It was first used in this way about 800 years ago.  Since then, however, get has taken on a variety of meanings.

To name just a handful of everyday uses, get can mean receive, answer, understand, have, and pick up. In the advertisement for The Week (to the left), do you get the double or triple meanings of the word here? (Do you understand or see more than one meaning of the word?) Do you get The Week? (Do you subscribe to this magazine or receive the magazine?) Do you understand why so many important people and institutions read this magazine? Maybe there are other meanings I am missing.

Next, the verb get is used with a variety of particles or prepositions to take on other meanings. These verb combinations are called phrasal verbs. Examples of some common phrasal verbs are get up, get out, get with it, get over, get in, get off, or get around to.  These combo verbs can have more than one meaning, too. Keep your eyes and ears open for this short word with a multitude of meanings.

Finally, get can be used with the past participle form of a verb in a passive causative sense. Instead of saying I had my car washed yesterday, you can say I got my car washed yesterday. The meaning here is that you "caused" someone else to do the activity for you. In other words, your car was washed yesterday by someone else or by some thing, i.e., the car-wash machine. However, you need to be cautious in using "get" as a passive form because it can have a slightly different meaning than be + past participle.  For example, "He was sunburned" is not identical in meaning to "He got sunburned."  The first statement sounds like a neutral report or observation of the guy's state or condition. The second statement, on the other hand, implies that the guy was sunburned unexpectedly or unintentionally, perhaps through some unforeseen circumstance. Even though he used sunscreen, he got sunburned, not he was sunburned.

Advertisements with a combination of text and illustrations are always a fun resource for learning English. Written ads are usually very short on words and often play with the ones that have multiple meanings (polysemes).  Now get up and get going!

***Here's one more link re: activities to do with "get." This one is from Cambridge University Press. The higher level activity on this last pdf focuses especially on the use of passive described in my second to the last paragraph re: unexpected result.

Some Funny Mistakes on Signs in English

This is a link to a blogpost at Miramar College's (San Diego, CA) English Center blog site from a workshop held there last year (Grammar Mistakes from Workshop at Miramar College). It contains some entertaining photos illustrating common mistakes in spelling which reflect poor English grammar.  Because spelling and pronunciation are not closely linked in English, it is easy to make these mistakes. A spellchecker won't necessarily catch these errors because the mistaken words are correctly spelled, but misused in context.

PQ CREEK XING

Have you ever seen a sign like this? If you horseback ride or hike or ride a trail bike, then you may be familiar with this type of hand-written sign, painted on or carved into wood and placed at the top of a stake in the ground. What does the sign say?

What does PQ CREEK XING TO NO. TRAIL mean?  What is BLACK MNT RD?  Are you confused? If you're out on this trail and don't understand the sign,  I hope you're with a local San Diegan who can "translate" or "decode" what it says for you. You may have to ask someone who seems to be familiar with the park.

If you go to the left, you will get to Peñasquitos Creek Crossing and be headed to the North Trail. If you go in the direction of the arrow pointing to the right, you will be headed toward Black Mountain Road.  Now do you see?