Global Voices Online

Signs are an important means to get first-hand information or advertise messages necessary for everyday life. But what happens when the signs are misleading and don't serve the purpose they were put up for.

BRN, who lives in Al Ain, UAE, has taken a picture of this sign found at the Traffic Department:

“This sign is posted at the office here in Al Ain where you register (and renew) your car. I sure hope that it makes more sense in Arabic than it does in English,” he writes.

The Arabic on the sign reads: “Please park your vehicle in the designated parking lot and proceed to the waiting area to collect a receipt for your vehicle inspection from the information desk.”

Talasim, from Jordan, is an Arabic blog which encourages readers to click pictures of signs and advertisements with mistakes in them and post them online.

In this post, reader Omar Abu Arisheh contributes an advertisement posted in a local paper by an English language school. Needless to say, the advert is riddled with glaring spelling errors. Click on the link to spot the mistakes.

Still with Talasim, Shaden Saud from Saudi Arabia contributes the following photograph:

The Arabic reads: Prostitute's apartments available for sale - cash or instalments

The typo was made by replacing a letter. Prostitute's should have read luxurious.

Our last stop sign is from Bahrain-based Bint Battuta, who posts the following sign, under the title: “Always better to be prepared.” **

**Photo Credit: Guardian Unlimited