Of traffic signs and illiteracy

Yesterday marked the end of my first week as solo adult in charge of our household.  In honor of surviving week one with children, apartment, car and sense of humor intact, I thought it would be fun to share a few of the Israeli traffic signs that have made my life just that much more entertaining, and along the way have made me think a bit about real world literacy issues.  In preparation for our time in Israel, I've been working hard on my Hebrew, but all of that time I've focused on understanding and speaking, figuring that they would be so much more important than reading, at least in the beginning.  Interesting logic, as it turns out, since my reading skills are pretty darn basic -- I can sound words out slowly and often can figure our what brief text means if I have time, but show me a paragraph and I panic.  And put that paragraph somewhere important and time sensitive like a traffic sign and wow!  Instant deer-in-the-headlights moment.  Pair that with the interesting Israeli tendency to create traffic signs with paragraphs of text (not always tri-lingual despite what I read in the guidebooks), liberal use of exclamation points, and pictures that only communicate if you know what they mean and you can appreciate the need to either laugh or scream. Of course I can't photograph them while driving, so am missing some of the best ones!

Exactly!