going nonverbal

It's a nice coincidence that on the day I did this seminar on nonverbal communication, I get this interesting picture in an email. It's from our beloved Cairo and it clearly illustrates an intriguing combination of indexical and symbolic signs. The title, by the way, says: "the earth is round". I am sure you can tell why by now :) So the Arabic sign says that the direction to Salah Salem Street is to the right, while the sign in English says it's to the left. Well, I'm sure the one who decided to put the signs that way wanted to demonstrate his linguistic knowledge about the way Arabic is written from the right and English from the left. Or maybe it's more than that, maybe it's a symbol of union and solidarity so that Arabic-speaking people would go right and English-speaking people would go left only to meet again after circling half of the earth. After all, the earth IS round :)

Oh, and here is another example of nonverbal communication, although it's a bit more scary. I am making it a habit for some time now on my way home from university to take the tube to King's Cross station then walk from there till Euston station (about 15 minutes walk) then get a bus from there (instead of changing tube lines and taking another train). It's kind of nice to walk on this busy road as it gives me a feeling of liveliness before staying home for the rest of the day, especially that it gets dark really early (sometimes I also like to think of it as a cheaper way to go home, that is of course if I don't stop at Starbucks on my way and get myself a large cafe mocca, or even a small one :) ). So, I was walking as usual today when my hand wrongly touched the iPod in my pocket causing it to start playing suddendly in a very loud volume. Close to having a heart attack, not to mention possible permanent damage to my hearing ability, I suddenly stopped, both my hands on my ears, head bent forward, producing a short scream of pain and shock. I must have looked stupid to other people walking by. And the funny thing is that the loud voice penetrating my ear drums was that of someone screaming "Atención" in a loud, but lively, Spanish song :)

p.s.
on the bus today, I noticed that the guy standing opposite my seat is talking in Egyptian Arabic on the mobile. But when he looked towards me and the man sitting beside me asking us in a not-very-good English if the bus won't turn left, he was absolutely thrilled when I replied in Arabic and asked him about where he wants to go. Not that I know my way around all the time of course, but at least I didn't tell him something close to the sign above ;-)

Mai