Interesting picture. I wonder if other countries assume that the speakers of the language of that country are "returning" as opposed to being "welcome".

Timothy: "If you can read this, you'd be home by now" ?

Sign: Welcome to Japan.

Meaning: Sod off you foreigner. You arent allowed into our notoriously racist country.

We have small genitalia.

But We like Beckham.

Sorry I don't understand H.M.'s message. I can read, and subscribe to, the Asahi newspaper but I am not sure whether that has any bearing on whether I am at home in Japan. I guess if one can read a Japanese newspaper then the chances are fairly high that that person thinks of Japan as home. So do you think that the intention is to welcome me back home? A positive thought.

Timothy

Sorry for being so brief as to be obtuse. I was taking the assumption you pointed out a step further by trying to compare it to signs used to promote housing developments in the United States in the century just past. I only linked to the newspaper because I've seen the ability to read all the characters used in newspapers a frequent measurement of Japanese literacy.

To answer your original rhetorical question, I've traveled a tiny amount abroad and remember that no one made the same assumption in Israel.

While I'm at it, I think it's odd I have no memories whatsoever of the airport in Poland, even though I clearly remember the flight over as well as arriving at the hotel.

Thank you for the picture of israel. I presume that both the English and the Hebrew say the same thing. I am sure that there is no sign in the UK saying "Beinvenue au Royaume Uni, Welcome Home." They make a nice comparison.
Tim
I just failed to post here. Have you got some new MT verification system?

Posted by Timothy at September 20, 2004 09:52 AM