Those
supposedly "international" symbols in the car are confusing, too.
Well, now you got me going .. so stupid signs saying some
text in some language are better than symbols? I'm talking
about the weired way that 99% of all signs in the US are
written text. Beside that reading them takes way more time,
isn't it especialy stupid in a country baesed on emigrants,
of whoom most can't even read their native language?
I mean, except for some realy ninor quirks, I can go almost
everywhere on the world and perfectly recognize the speed
linkit, no stop znoes, and whatever without speaking a danm
word of that language... except of course the US...
Well, there *is* still only one official language here...except I think in
California.
But really, I think the problem is that no-one explains the damn pictograms.
There is a driver's manual to explain the road signs, but nothing explains
those goofy symbols on the dash. I have had cars literally for years before
I understood what the airflow control symbols in them were trying to tell
me. (Yes, I could have looked under the dash and figured it out, but it is
a non-critical system, so why bother?)
It is not even that it is important to understand the symbols. It is more
that they are supposed to be *easier* to understand, but aren't. Little
squiggles with some particular orientation might mean "heat" to you, but
when I look at them, I can't tell if it means something will blow air on me,
or what.
I suspect that it really comes down to what you are used to. When I was
young the words "heat" and "air" were on the knob, and never quite
made the
transition, I guess :-).
Of course, I'd also avoid driving in a foreign country (if at all possible)
until I was darn sure I knew the local rules and lingo anyway. Especially
anywhere they drive on the left. (It would make me nervous as hell to drive
a deadly weapon around, with a fair chance of making a mistake with it, and
then to not even be able to explain myself to the locals.)
Vince
